Night stalker
by Buffy4evr2001
Summary: This is a story from my friend Matt and so he didnt post it I am going to for him. As a stalker is in Seattle and Max is going to stop him. Ihope you like Read and review


Seattle, 2019. A massive terrorist attack known as the Pulse destroyed the American economy a decade ago, plunging the nation into a massive depression and annihilating America's superpower status. This is the world of Max, an escapee from the top secret Project Manticore. Bicycle messenger by day, thief by night, she struggles to make a living in a harsh world and find her other "siblings," all while evading the evil Colonel Donald Lydecker who seeks to recapture or kill her. Now, a mysterious predator is moving through Seattle, killing almost on a whim and Max will find herself involved in a deadly game of cat and mouse, with surprising consequences. This story takes place in the time period between "Cold Comfort" and "Blah, Blah, Woof, Woof."  
  
Old Chinatown, 2:15 AM  
  
"Honestly," Yuji Wang said to himself as he walked down the street. "It's hard to make a living these days as a fence. The police with their damn hover-drones make it hard to conduct deals in the open and the brownouts make doing things inside without natural light a pain." He was a thin, reedy Asian with dark hair that hung down between his eyes in a vaguely Hitler-esque look. He wore a Glock .45 on his waist and carried a parcel under his arm. He was apparently alone under the unfeeling light of the full moon; apparently everyone else in this part of town was inside. He passed under a decrepit walkway between two office buildings.  
However, he wasn't alone. A dark figure was perched on the walkway, his feet on the rim and his hands holding on. As the mysterious character heard his approach, he crab-walked over a few feet and a moment later made a flying leap. The person had timed it perfectly to intercept his prey on the street below.  
"What the hell!" Wang screamed as he saw the horrendous figure drop down in front of him. He barely got time to glimpse a human silhouette before he was grabbed by the throat and hurled into the underside of the catwalk. The impact shattered his skull, killing him. The killer screamed, a nightmarish howl of pain and triumph, and leaped away into the night. The corpse of Yuji Wang lay in the streets and within minutes, a rat came over to investigate what might be a new source of food. The rodent poked at the still-warm body for a moment before beginning to nibble on the man's left ear.  
  
Old Chinatown, 7:00 AM  
  
"Damn and blast," one of the cops said. "Another one." Three police officers and a crime scene photographer stood around the body, while a forensics expert drew a chalk outline around the corpse. The body had been discovered mere minutes before, and the rats had gotten to it before the cops had. The man's left ear and part of his nose had been chewed off. His mouth, however, was still frozen in the last scream that man would ever emit. The forensics expert shook his head as he got up from the body.  
"This has been the second one in this area and the sixth one in the whole city. Six people, all killed at night, apparently with the killer's bare hands. Like the others, this one was taken by surprise, so the killer probably dropped from the bridge up there. Have some people take a look up there for evidence."  
"Yes sir," one of the cops said, taking his radio out of his pocket. Suddenly, the sound of screeching tires filled the air as a van with the logo "Seattle News" tore around the corner. The vehicle came to a stop sixty feet from the assembled peace officers and the TV reporters spilled out with their cameras, microphones, and other tools of the trade. The crime scene photographer groaned.  
"Damn press. They always show up and become bothers whenever something unpleasant happens."  
  
Jam Pony X-Press, 7:05 AM  
  
Sketchy, Original Cindy, and Herbal had crammed themselves into the single chair in front of the television at the messenger service, watching the TV news. Apparently, the infamous "Night Stalker" serial killer had struck again, leaving a corpse in the streets of Old Chinatown. The police were doing their best to pretend the cameraman and the reporters weren't there, filming their every move, but they did make sure to keep most of the corpse out of view. It didn't stop the reporters from asking questions, though.  
"Who is in charge here?" one asked. Nobody answered, but it didn't stop the frenzied news folks in search of a story. "Do you folks have any leads on who the killer is?" The cops and specialists didn't answer, but a big black truck with the words "City Morgue" emblazoned on its side pulled up. The camera moved up to show several attendants stepping out of the truck, one carrying a body bag. "The representatives of the City Morgue have arrived," one of the reporters said, and the whole gaggle rushed towards them. "Do you have any information about this?" another newsman said.  
"No comment," the lead attendant said. "Go away please."  
"Man oh man," Original Cindy said. "The Night Stalker strikes again. Six people so far, and the attacks are becoming more and more frequent."  
"De Most High says 'Thou Shalt Not Kill'," Herbal said, dispensing his religious advice. "Dis is bad, very bad."  
"I thought you said it was all good," Sketchy said. "All good?"  
"I said dat Jah makes it work out for good, and He loves in spite of de evil, but dis is bad, very bad," Herbal intoned. "Dis man, whoever he is, he kills wid his bare hands."  
"Man?" Original Cindy cut in. "Might be a chick, you know."  
"Might be," Herbal said. "But only de Most High knows dat. De police, dey don't have a clue."  
"Ouch," Sketchy said. "The boys in blue seem to be having twice as much trouble. First they find that this killer, who nobody's even seen and survived, has struck again, but then they've got to deal with the media."  
Suddenly, Normal materialized behind Sketchy, his face right next to his ear. "I'll give you three guesses, Sketchy."  
"Let me guess," Sketchy said, turning pale. "Bip, bip, bip, back to work people."  
"Good job. Your prize of the day is to keep your job. Now turn the TV off! I've got packages to deliver."  
  
Logan's Residence, 7:10 AM  
  
Logan shook his head. "Whoever this killer is, he strikes at night and has only attacked those who live in the run-down areas."  
"Maybe he's some fat cat hunting people for sport, you know, like in The Most Dangerous Game," Max said, standing to his right. She had arrived a few minutes before, dropping off to say hello before going to work. They both stood in front of Logan's TV, watching the morgue attendants load up the corpse while the police held the reporters at bay.  
"I doubt it. Killing with one's bare hands would seem so beneath anyone who would do that, and I don't know any folks that ruthless. Especially since you dealt with the drug-switching guy a couple of months ago." Logan clicked off the TV and wheeled himself toward his kitchen. "Want some breakfast?" he asked.  
"Not really," Max said. "I'm not particularly hungry now."  
"Pity," Logan said. "The personal trainer's not in today and I'm not likely to have company for awhile. Poor lonely me."  
"Fine," Max said. "They usually don't expect me in until around 7:30 anyway. What's cooking?"  
"Figured that some streusel muffins would be good. Even though the Pulse disabled most of their offices and equipment, Duncan Hines is still churning out this wonderful muffin mixes." He reached over the counter and withdrew a Tupperware container with eight muffins in it. "I fixed it yesterday, but since I live by myself, I don't eat them particularly fast. How many do you want?"  
"Two would be fine."  
"Okay. Could you put four in the microwave then? It's a little hard for me to reach these days."  
"Sure." Max took the container from Logan, removed four muffins, and put them in the microwave.  
"Fifteen seconds will do," Logan said.  
  
Space Needle Restaurant Restroom, 7:20 AM  
  
March 21st, 2009. He perched in a tall tree, hiding from the men in pursuit. Fourteen soldiers armed with heavy guns and carrying weighted nets were searching the forest floor for him in a sweep pattern. At the front of the group was a man holding two huge hounds on two leashes. While the others thought it wise to head for the nearest major cities and lose themselves there, he thought it would be better to head through the deep woods, perhaps toward Canada where those who pursued them had no power.  
Suddenly, one of the branches he sat on creaked. One of the soldiers looked up and shouted. The others raised their guns and opened fired, aiming to destroy the branches that held him aloft and catch him when he fell. He felt himself falling, falling.  
Awake. Now he was in the water tank used for breath-holding exercises. He felt no need to breathe, so he hadn't been in there very long. He had been secured to the tank floor by two cables rather than one, indicating that those in charge were being especially cautious about the gifted children they had thought they had lost. However, the water hurt, it hurt! He looked to the surface to see a severed electrical cable in the water, electrifying the element in which he was captive. He looked to the outside window to see the blond man, his face twisted in an evil glare, watching in apparent amusement.  
No!!!  
The man abruptly stopped convulsing, his eyes wide. The visions came more and more often, tormenting him with memories of the month of exquisite agony in which he was put through for his "crime" of wanting to live freely. Oftentimes he was put on display in his torment as an awful spectacle to those who hadn't the guts to escape their military slavery. Then the computers and security systems shut down in the night and he had escaped again, this time following the examples of those who hadn't been recaptured and heading for the nearest city, to lose himself in the crowd. He looked around him to see that in his delirium, he torn up the walls and broken down a stall door. He shook his head a bit, then rose to his feet. Time to go out and scrounge some food.  
  
  
  
Jam Pony X-Press, 7:30 AM  
  
"Right on time," Normal said as Max strolled in at exactly 7:30 AM. "Your friends have been here for about half an hour, watching the TV news about this bloody 'Night Stalker' and not getting anything productive done. Now Max, I've got a package to Sector Two that a guy I suspect is a mob boss wants."  
"Sure Normal," Max said. "Where is it?"  
"Right here," Normal said, withdrawing an envelope from his desk and handing it to Max. "Get moving, please." Max turned away from her supervisor with the envelope and began walking towards the back, where the lockers and bikes were. As she walked along, Sketchy and Herbal put in appearances and tried to be conversational.  
"Hey Max, this 'Night Stalker' struck again and tore up someone named Yuji Wang in Old Chinatown. This is his sixth victim so far," Sketchy said. "I wonder if we should set up a betting pool on the number of victims this guy'll get before they nab him."  
"Yuji..." Max gasped. Yuji was her chief fence; he had sold much of the expensive art that she stole from rich people and was a personal friend as well. He was gone now, killed in the street by an anonymous psychopath. She frowned, eyes wide.  
"Well? A pool sounds cool." Max narrowed her eyes, about to brain Sketchy. Luckily for him, Herbal spoke up.  
"Can't you see dat de lady don't appreciate your freaky-like idea? Mebbe you should change de subject."  
"Oh sure. Well, some TV pundits are saying that the killer is actually the Mayor who gets really, really drunk and..."  
"I meant stop talkin' about de Night Stalker, man," Herbal said. "Mebbe you should shut yo mouth a bit."  
"Okay," Sketchy said in a rather bovine fashion. "Well, the Russian guys I do some work for and the local John Birch Society chapter are in some kind of "Cold War" over a local deli. You see, the deli..."  
"Shut up Sketchy," Original Cindy piped in. "Can't you see that Max is thinking?"  
"Yeah," Herbal said. "So zip it, man."  
"Okay," Sketchy said. "I think I'll see if Normal has any deliveries." He walked off hurriedly. Herbal shook his head.  
"Man, dis guy is really obsessed with de Night Stalker. A serial killer havin' a fan? Who'da thought?"  
"A betting pool on whether someone else dies," Max said. "That's just sick."  
"Sketchy is trapped by his male genes, Max," Original Cindy said. "His genes make him alternate between being a sicko and complete moron. He'll probably get over this Night Stalker thing soon and start doing strange and stupid things like he used to."  
"Bip, bip, bip, get going!" Normal yelled from his booth. "We don't have time for this!"  
"Fine," Max said, exasperated. "I'm going."  
  
Meeting Room, 8:00 AM  
  
"Any leads on Max?" Lydecker said to one of his associates. Ever since Vogelsang's mysterious death, he had little information on the girl or any other Manticore escapees. Another one of his "gifted children" was briefly in the city and Lydecker was still a little ticked about how Max and Zack had defeated a small army of his troops. Unfortunately, before he could get a bead on the other, he had fled the city. The city was a haystack and his wayward children were the needles. If the other had stayed, he could have captured one needle to bait the other, but the man had fled somewhere. At least he had managed to get Brin out of the deal, bringing his "capture" total to four.  
"None, so far," one of his aides said. "Vogelsang was our best source because of his connection with her. Now that he's dead, we have no sources close to her and this is a big city. What can we do?"  
Lydecker shook his head. "Perhaps we should put out a description with the police and ask about whoever this is. Besides," he said, smiling. "I have the perfect person to recapture or kill her if we do find her." He looked to a figure that stood in a shadowed corner of the meeting room. The figure was very tall and ominous looking, thought shadows obscured it. "You can do this, can't you?"  
"If necessary, Colonel, sir," the figure said. The mysterious character was male, with a very deep voice. "They left me behind and they'll pay for it."  
  
Streets of Seattle, 10:30 AM  
  
"Man," Max said in exasperation as she peddled down the street. "Normal's really working us today. Typically, we deliver maybe two packages an hour. Now we've done ten in the past forty minutes alone." Max was steering with one hand and carrying a big bag of boxes over her shoulder, keeping her eyes on the busy streets of the market district.  
"Yes," Sketchy gasped, his face red, as he pedaled along beside her, similarly burdened. He didn't have Max's advantage in strength, endurance, and speed, so the intensive work of the past several hours was exhausting him. "He doesn't want us to waste time watching the Night Stalker coverage on TV and giving the business a bad rep by appearing as though we've got serial killer fetishes. So he works us to death."  
"Well," Max said. "You have to admit, putting all the packages we've just got on the "high priority" list was a good idea and will give business a boost. Perhaps there'll be new clients and he'll have to hire new riders to meet the demand. New people to hang with."  
"If we don't die of heart attacks first," Sketchy wheezed. "How many of these packages are going to the Mayor's Office?"  
"Four, two in each package. I think Normal wants us traveling together so we can support each other in the throes of exhaustion." This was all theory to her, since she almost never got exhausted; the one exception was when she was in prison and deprived of Tryptophan, thus losing her superhuman stamina and strength. "Not that the man's developing a soul; it's pure self-interest to keep people from dying on him and depriving him of riders."  
A small car turned out of a corner and rattled past, too close for comfort. Max turned to watch it go by almost involuntarily, as one near-missed in traffic typically does, and spotting something unusual. A flash of dark numbers and the brief glimpse of bars on someone's neck appeared for a moment before vanishing. Max gasped a little; one of the other Manticore escapees was in the city with her. Was it Zack, who decided to risk discovery in order to hang with her for awhile? Was it one of the others, like Jeri or Johnny? Or one of those who didn't escape?  
"Sketchy, stop and rest," Max said. "I'll be back in a moment."  
"Thanks Max," Sketchy wheezed. "You're superhuman, you know that?"  
"Sure," she said uneasily. "Watch my stuff, okay?" She dismounted her bike and melted into the crowd; searching for the person with the mark of Cain on his neck.  
  
  
  
  
Alleyways of Seattle, 10:35 AM  
  
Rusty de la Garza wrapped his blanket around himself and shivered as he leaned against the alley wall. Another morning wasted in a fruitless attempt to find a job in a failing economy. Few people wanted to hire homeless people these days; it didn't reflect well on the business. Perhaps if one of the few cruise ships or cargo freighters pulled into the harbor one of these days, he would try to be a sailor. Or perhaps he could join the military.  
He didn't notice the mysterious silhouette entering the alley from the street forty yards from him. However, the shape noticed him as he ran his fingers through his short blond hair. That was his undoing.  
The blond-haired man, his face a mask of rage, struck him with the cattle prod again. He screamed as the current scorched his body, but no one listened or cared. The blows came as soon as the convulsions from previous blows stopped. The blond-haired man had an obvious fetish for torturing people with electricity. Then, the man smiled and stopped beating him. He turned his helpless victim around and with one thrust of the prod...  
"No!" the shape half-screamed, charging de la Garza. The homeless job seeker looked up to see a figure cloaked in dark, ragged garb hurtling towards him. He gasped and drew up an arm to defend himself, bracing himself with the other arm. The impact of the charging man sent him crashing through the brick wall, smashing his neck, spine, and ribs. The man then leaped up into the fire escape of the building and scrambled up.  
  
Streets of Seattle, 10:40 AM  
  
"Caught your breath yet?" Max asked as she returned to her bike. Sketchy was still tinged slightly red, but he was no longer gasping or wheezing.  
"I guess so," he said. "How was your little break?"  
"Uneventful," she said. Despite her search of the area around her, her pupils at maximum width to get every detail, she found absolutely nothing. Whoever that was, he had done a good job of disappearing. "Let's get going."  
  
Jam Pony X-Press, 12:00 PM  
  
"How was de messenger run today?" Herbal asked as he began eating his chow mein. "De sector cops, dey were being very nice and didn't try to extort money. Dey takin' de words of John de Baptist seriously, 'bout soldiers not extorting money and all dat." He and the others were clustered around the table where they customarily ate lunch.  
"It was exhausting," Sketchy said. "Normal had us gallivanting all over town for hours straight and it is surprisingly hot this time of year."  
"Wimp," Original Cindy said. "Max, what was your opinion?"  
"It wasn't that bad. Granted, I'm probably in better shape than Sketchy but still..."  
"How sympathetic," Sketchy groaned. "That was not nice at all."  
"Hurry up and eat, people. Lots of packages today and we have a reputation to uphold," Normal said in his annoying voice, tapping on his watch expectantly. He had apparently strolled over from his booth in order to continue slave-driving them.  
"This is about the Night Stalker, isn't it?" Sketchy said. "Dude, not all of us are serial killer groupies."  
"Nail on the head there, Bucko," Normal said, saluting him in a comical fashion. "But until you drop your Night Stalker fetish or you die of an exercise-induced heart attack, this goes on. And it gives all of you an incentive to get Sketchy's mind on something else." He gave Herbal and Original Cindy the "raised eyebrow" look and went back to his booth.  
"Sketchy, de Most High desires self-sacrifice. So stop wid de serial killer fascination for de sake of de rest of us."  
"Or I'll beat you up," Original Cindy threatened. "That incentive enough?"  
"Nah," Max said. "I think the exercise-induced heart attack works well enough."  
"New deal people," Normal called, yelling in order to be heard from his booth. "We're finishing up at midnight tonight rather than seven. Late night runs, people."  
Sketchy groaned and everyone gave him "the look."  
  
Streets of Seattle, 9:30 PM  
  
It was already dark when Max and Sketchy set off on their late-night messenger run. Normal had paired him with her because she never seemed to get tired and he seemed very lazy that day.  
"Max, do we have to pass through this part of town?" Sketchy implored. "Those Russian guys are still mad about the money and if they're drunk on vodka like they typically are at this hour they might mistake me for a trash can for their sharp broken bottles." They were passing through a slightly seedy part of town while delivering a pair of small packages for the captain of a cargo ship from Los Angeles. The dock his ship was parked was out in the far end of the port, so it was very, very far from Jam Pony.  
"It's the fastest way," Max insisted. "Beside, it's on mostly flat ground." The pair bicycled under a walkway. Directly above them, a dark form hunched, eyes on them. As the two of them pedaled away, it leaped forty feet onto a nearby building and rushed along the roof, keeping up with them. However, the figure kept out of sight, peeking over the edge of the building only often enough to keep tabs on his targets.  
Two of the soldiers patrolled the perimeter, more so than usual. The escape two months previous had made them wary of any further attempts. However, in the dead of night the lights and security systems had gone out, making his own escape easy enough. He had gotten out of his cell via a vent and had gotten past the dead security cameras. The blond man was not about, so there was no threat from him and his instruments of torture. The soldiers were skittish. A lot of their night-vision equipment and other high-tech gadgetry wasn't working for some reason, so they were on edge. However, he possessed natural night vision and he didn't need technology. Long patrol, he thought, long patrol.  
"I still think robbing the casinos was a good idea," Sketchy insisted. "There's no reason why not to rob these people. They come to the city, they get drunk and solicit prostitutes, and they go home broke, drunk, or both. They attract crime and various other problems, so surely us common folk should get some compensation."  
"Last week you were all the yuppie-wannabe. Now you sound like some kind of Communist. What's the change?" Max asked, tongue in cheek. She knew all of Sketchy's persuasive attempts in connection with his idiotic get-rich-quick schemes. She also knew how to deflect them.  
"I'm trying to convince you and the others to help me. This could be our big break, you know."  
"Breaking rocks in the out islands, you know. Not my cup of tea."  
"Come on. Nothing in life is without risk."  
They passed by a burned-out warehouse on their way, not looking back. If they had, they would have seen the dark figure leaping from one building to the next, trying to keep up with them.  
The two soldiers still did not leave. Apparently the blond man had set their guard position there and they weren't going to leave. Why did they not leave? Why? Why? Why?  
"Sketch, you'd have better luck persuading me to be an arms dealer. And you know that I don't like guns."  
"Why not? Aren't Smith and Wesson .45s a girl's best friend?"  
"That's diamonds, dipwad."  
"They're good for disposing of stalkers, rapists, and cheating boyfriends."  
"They're also good for getting rid of annoying bike messengers too."  
That seemed to shock Sketchy. He immediately shut up and put the energy he wasted talking into pedaling. As they pedaled away, the form on the roof went into action. It leaped onto a power line, using a strip of cloth as a crude Zip line. It slid across the street onto the roof of another building, this one to the right of the targets. Max and Sketchy did not even suspect that they were being pursued through the night by something horrible.  
  
Meeting Room, 9:33 PM  
  
"Well, I've spent the whole bloody day going over all the information we've got and it isn't accomplishing too much, sir," one of Lydecker's aides said. "We know that the girl is associated with a bicycle messenger service, but there are dozens of them in this city and that's not too good a lead."  
"Yes, but it is a lead," Lydecker said. "We're starting to close in."  
The aide rolled his eyes, remembering the last time Lydecker said that. All they got in that case was a few dozen beat-up soldiers and the girl and her male companion slipping through their fingers.  
"Don't roll your eyes at me, Corporal," Lydecker said threateningly.  
"Sorry, sir," the man said. Lydecker was not one to mess with; he had a penchant for personally torturing those who got in his way, such as the late Vogelsang and several others. "However, have you heard about the Night Stalker?"  
Lydecker groaned. The media coverage and hype surrounding this serial killer in Seattle was like it was with the Beatles back in the Sixties. Lydecker was only a small child then, but his parents talked incessantly about the way everyone carried on about the obnoxious British rockers.  
"I've heard about the damn Night Stalker enough, Corporal. I don't wish to hear any more. It's getting on my nerves something fierce."  
  
Roof of a Building, 9:40 PM  
  
Present-day reality and the dark past mingled in the perception of the man on the roof as he watched the two bicycle messengers on their route. Flashbacks moved through his brain as they moved past him.  
Now was his big chance! The soldiers had their backs turned towards him and there was a gap in the razor wire directly in front of their faces! If he was going to get out of the living nightmare that was this facility, it was right now! He leaped...  
He leaped...  
  
Streets of Seattle, 9:40 PM  
  
"What the hell is that!" Sketchy half-screamed as the dark figure landed directly in front of him and Max. As Sketchy's shocked gaze took in details of the figure's appearance, he got a good idea of what it was.  
The figure was that of a man at least six feet tall. He had a five o'clock shadow, which didn't obscure several nasty scars on the lower part of his face. He was wearing an old military poncho and a pair of ragged pants, coupled with two old sneakers. The hood of the poncho was up, obscuring the upper part of his face. He smiled, revealing yellowed teeth. However, this sinister image was marred by the fact that the man's body trembled constantly. He brought his hands up in a combat stance and lunged...  
He remembered that the first soldier he had attacked was too surprised to react. In the space of two seconds, he had broken his neck. The second soldier managed to get his gun out and fire a short burst, but in his surprise he had missed. This episode was different than the original, because the first soldier had moved back rather quickly and was asking "You're the Night Stalker? Wow, I never dreamed I meet you face-to-face!" The second soldier, who was female and looked kind of familiar, was moving to engage.  
"You're the Night Stalker?" Sketchy asked incredulously, his voice tinged with fear. "Wow, I never dreamed I'd meet you face-to-face!" Although he seemed enraptured with his meeting with the local anti-hero, he was backing away on his bike. One never knew how serial killers would react to fans.  
"Shut up, Sketchy," Max said. "I'll handle this guy."  
The man leaped at Sketchy, hands outstretched towards the messenger's throat. Max lashed out with a closed fist to the man's chin, sending him reeling. The man broke his backward stagger with a heel jammed into the sidewalk and came forward again, this time aiming himself at Max.  
This was definitely NOT like the first time. The second soldier just saved the first and had sent him flying. He thought that he might be dealing with one of his old comrades, those he had fled with. Then he realized that they were all far away, in one of the major cities of the area. They wouldn't have come back; they didn't even know that he had been taken. His opponent lashed out again, but this time he seized her arm and tossed her in the air. This was slightly harder than the first time around.  
Max flipped in midair and landed on her feet. This guy had better reflexes than most people with whom she had fought. A brief glimpse under the hood of his poncho revealed piercing gray eyes, eyes that alternated between sanity and madness. As the man spun to kick, she noticed something odd on the back of his neck. Max frowned. She'd have to get a better look at him, but this was odd. The man was screaming now, a howl of rage and torment.  
"You're not taking me back, damn you! I fled these people once and I'll die first! The blond man is mad, I say! Insane!" He stared at Max's face with bulging eyes, his teeth chattering. "Not the water tank, with the electrified water!" he roared. "Monster!" He lunged at her, his left fist glancing off her jawbone. She made a small noise of pain and kicked him as hard as she could in the temple. This sent him staggering away and Max seized his hood and pulled. It came away with a tear, revealing the rest of his head. He had straight black hair in a military flattop hair cut. However, it was the back of his neck she was interested in. A Manticore bar code was there, although this particular mark was partially obscured with various scars, as though he had tried to destroy his mark of Cain with a knife or blade. The number was 345602025.  
"Johnny?" Max asked softly. "Is this you?"  
The visage of the female Black Ops soldier faded, replaced with the image of Max, one of those who fled with him. She had insisted on heading for one of the cities and had set off towards the west. The image alternated with that of a wide-eyed, vaguely Hispanic-looking woman who stood before him. She wore jeans and a T-shirt advertising some local band, quite unlike the military-issue gown the young Max wore. His breathing came hard and fast. What was going on?  
He didn't wait to find out. With a leap he was back on top of the building and a moment later, he was gone. Max watched him go, then turned to Sketchy. Sketchy looked from her to the top of the building and back again. "What's going on?" he asked. "You and this guy fight so fast I can't really see what's going on, you grab his hood and poke at his neck, then he leaves. This is kooky."  
"Let's finish this delivery and head back to Jam Pony. And are you still obsessed with the Night Stalker?"  
"N...no," Sketchy stammered. "Let's get going."  
The two of them pedaled off towards their destination, trying to keep the abnormal events out of their minds. Max couldn't stop thinking about Johnny, who attacked in a state of madness.  
  
Logan's Residence, 10:00 PM  
  
"My, these people seem to travel in packs. Two weeks ago, Zack shows up and acts all snappy, then this 'Johnny' puts in an appearance. Are you sure he's the Night Stalker?" Logan asked. A few minutes earlier, Max had breezed into Logan's penthouse and told him about the encounter with the dark man in the night. He seemed very interested in the whole thing and asked a lot of questions.  
"Logan, the only person or thing I know that can smash people through brick walls or into bridges with that amount of force is someone from Manticore. Besides, I think I may even know what's driving him."  
"What?"  
"Throughout the whole engagement, his body trembled near constantly and he seemed like he was seeing something that only he could see. When I have my seizures, I flash back to the Manticore program and I shake insanely. He seems to be having the same problem, only that he is capable of attacking and killing while having seizures."  
"When you were deprived of Tryptophan, you lost your superhuman strength and reflexes. How come he can fight and kill with such supernatural speed and power?"  
"Perhaps he has a different genetic flaw. In his seizures, perhaps he goes into some kind of hallucinatory psychosis and attacks people."  
"Well Max, you knew him. What should we do?"  
"When I knew Johnny, he was one of the nicest people. What has happened to him?"  
Logan coughed. "Perhaps, if you could get him to ingest Tryptophan, it might stop his fits of homicidal rage and he might stay sane long enough to give us some answers straight from the horse's mouth."  
"That would require actually finding a way to get him to either take one of my pills or inject him with some of the substance," Max said. "If he's in some kind of mental warp and turns into a homicidal maniac, that could be something of a problem." She paused. "He was my friend. I'll find a way."  
Logan smiled. "If you can pull this off, I'd like to meet him."  
  
Ruth's Tenement House, 11:15 PM  
  
Johnny, the dark man, perched on the edge of the roof of the tenement house, his mind flashing in and out of reality. The fight with the shape-changer, which alternated between being a Blacks Ops soldier and his old friend Max, had affected him deeply. Even though his hold on reality was tenuous at best, this troubled him. He took to the roof and looked down onto the meager traffic flow, images of reality alternating with the distant past.  
He was in a tree again, outside of the compound fence. The first of the visions were coming and he was scared. He scrambled over branches, trying to get away from the place of torment. Flashes of the tortures of the blond man echoed through his brain.  
The flashback stopped and he was stuck looking down onto the street below. A few cars passed through the night, heading towards various destinations.  
  
  
  
Chinook Helicopter, 11:17 PM  
  
"All right men," Lydecker said. "We've finally got one. I want you to deploy in a sweep pattern throughout this district, safeties off and tranquilizers armed. Keep your lethal weapons holstered unless absolutely necessary. Once you can slow him down, net him. These nets are made out of high-tensile wire and a tiger would have trouble slashing through them." He stood at one end of the Chinook's transport area, briefing the small army of troops that was under his command. "Bring him back here. This man is unarmed, but he is extremely dangerous. Exercise utmost caution and use live fire only if it's the only way to bring him down. You all have heard my description; be prepared."  
Lydecker inhaled, smiling. It seems like he was finally going to get somewhere. He'd intercepted a call to the police describing a man with a dark mark on his neck who broke into a house, but fled screaming into the night when a blond man attempted to subdue him. This odd description fit an old acquaintance perfectly and he'd called out several squads of troops to deal with him. "And one last thing," he said to his soldiers. "Don't let him see me, whatever you do."  
  
Streets of Seattle, 11:20 PM  
  
"Johnny!" Max called into the darkness. "It's me, Max! Where are you?" She felt like a total fool, but she wanted to find him. In his hallucinatory madness, he had already killed several people and she wanted to stop him before he victimized anyone more. She carried some of her Tryptophan pills with her, hoping that she could temporarily restore her quarry's sanity. She saw something dark sitting on the roof of a building and thought that she may have found her target. However, when she widened her pupils to get a better look, she saw that it was only a gargoyle. Baroque architecture, she thought, so deceptive.   
Suddenly, a massive double-rotor Chinook transport roared through the night over her head. It flew on for a few seconds and then landed in the street. The massive cargo door opened and twenty soldiers, grouped in fives, spilled out. Each group had a steel net, weighted with several large weights. They were all carrying tranquilizer rifles, though they had Smith and Wesson sidearms strapped to their waists. Max's jaw dropped. It seems that someone else had gotten news of Johnny and was arriving in force. A certain someone named Lydecker.  
  
Tenement House Roof, 11:21 PM  
  
Johnny looked down to see soldiers spilling into the streets and fanning out through the area. He immediately went into one of those strange states where the present and the past mixed together.  
Dozens of swarming ants crawled over his face. He tried to swat them away, but the blond man had tied him up, spattered honey all over him, and left him amid the swarms of insects. All he could do was cry out in pain as the ants gnawed on him, tormenting him. He desired nothing more but to stomp the ants, stop them into oblivion! The ants were below him...it's clobbering time!  
With a roar of rage Johnny descended from the roof, his poncho billowing out behind him so he looked vaguely like some hideous black bird.   
  
Streets of Seattle, 11:22 PM  
  
He crashed onto two soldiers and smashed their heads together, then spun into another soldier and broke his neck. Immediately, the other soldiers in the vicinity of the chopper reacted to the presence of death among them, their surprise wearing off and turning into cold, methodical purpose.  
Several soldiers aimed their tranquilizer guns at him and fired. He leaped in the air, dodging most of them, but several jammed into his flesh and injected their soporific cargoes. He felt his body start to slow down, imperceptibly at first but then he felt like his limbs were made of lead. Still, he found enough strength to toss one soldier into a group of others, scattering them like ninepins. More darts struck him, pumping him full of narcotics.  
The enemies gathered around him as he crashed down from the tree. He tried to fight them as they seized him and bound his limbs, but there were too many of them to fight. One of them shoved a needle into his carotid artery and soon deep, dark sleep overtook him. Deep, dark sleep...  
"No..." Max gasped as Johnny was finally brought down. In a fit of insanity he had challenged an entire army and lost. She watched helplessly as the soldiers wrapped him in the heavy nets and took him inside the helicopter, to Lydecker and whatever horrors he had waiting for those unlucky enough to fall into his clutches. Then, she had a plan.  
She jumped up onto the nearest roof and began running. If she could jump onto the helicopter before it lifted off, she might get a free ride to the enemy base. They had already bundled Johnny into the chopper and the heavy door was closing fast. She was still forty yards from the chopper and the rotors were beginning to spin. Max had about half a minute before the chopper lifted off. Her running had taken her closer to the vehicle, but the blades were spinning faster and faster. She could see that the helicopter was beginning to rise.  
  
Chinook Cockpit, 11:24 PM  
  
"Is the prisoner secure?" Lydecker asked over the chopper's intercom. He had relocated to the helicopter's cockpit to avoid being seen by their victim, whom he had a special relationship with. He wanted to keep his presence a surprise and was thus forced to talk to his capture teams via a speaker. This was not optimal, but at least he had finally captured one of the Manticore escapees. Ten years of searching were now bearing fruit.  
Something went clunk against the fuselage and the pilot looked up. "What was that?" he said.  
"Probably just some debris falling off a building," Lydecker said. "I want our special cargo taken back to the base pronto. Get us going."  
"Yes sir." As the helicopter lifted off, Lydecker and his men had no idea that they had just picked up a hitchhiker.  
  
The Kelly P. Freeman Federal Building Roof, 11:30 PM  
  
Lydecker's operation was run from the Kelly P. Freeman Federal Building. The structure had been closed twelve years ago during Libertarian President Harry Browne's federal downsizing of 2004-2008, but nobody had bought it out or knocked it down. When Lydecker had noticed the queries on Project Manticore from Seattle, he had moved his base of operations from Montana to Seattle and found that the deserted building in the heart of the downtown district fit the bill nicely. Everyone was so used to the increased military presence in the city that nobody thought it odd to have helicopters and Hummers moving in and out at odd hours. Besides, even though almost all of the equipment had been removed and all the employees had been let go, the building was technically still government property.  
Now, two very special people were coming to the Federal Building. One of them was a captured specimen of a long-dead military super-soldier program, while the other was a spawn of the program who had stowed away for a rescue mission, a rescue mission for the first person's body and possibly their soul. All hell was about to break loose.  
"Take him to the interrogation center," Lydecker ordered over the intercom as the rotors wound down and the rear door swung open. "I want to find out whether this man has had any contact with the others and where I can find them. Hurry it up, people." He smiled in spite of himself. All this fruitless work was now consummated. He had found one of the Manticore escapees; the information this one probably had would lead him to the others. Life was good.  
Perched atop the chopper's fuselage, Max heard every word from the villainous Special Forces officer. However, she had no idea where the interrogation center was and how to get to it. Heck, she had no clue about the building's layout or how many soldiers were in it. This whole operation was a spur-of-the-moment deal and she was incredibly ill-prepared. Her chances of making it out alive with Johnny in tow were essentially nil. Max snorted. What the hell, life involves taking chances.  
She watched from the chopper as a dozen Black Ops characters carried off a large bundle that emitted insane screams and visions of the past.  
"Damn you!" Johnny roared as they took him into the roof exit. "You're a bunch of monsters, all of you! By the time I'm finished with you, you will all be dead and damned!" She could still hear his howls when they took him down the stairwell leading  
"Ignore him," she heard Lydecker say. "Something is very wrong with this specimen."  
The sound of Lydecker's voice sent Johnny into a new spasm of howling and madness. Apparently it had triggered some kind of flashback. Max scowled. Lydecker must not have had a heart. She snorted again. She'd known that Lydecker was a soulless monster since she was probably five. Nothing new from this train of thought.  
She waited until the last of the soldiers had gone before slipping off the chopper and moving silently towards the entrance.  
  
Office Block, Kelly P. Freeman Federal Building, 11:45 PM  
  
"Place our patient into the interrogation room and set him up for extensive questioning," Lydecker ordered the officer in charge of their captive. "I'll get started on him..." His voice trailed off into a yawn. "Tomorrow morning, five or six. I'm tired." Lydecker and the officer stood in front of the bundle, whose occupant the officer had just injected with industrial-strength tranquilizers. Johnny was unconscious now, a state which probably would not last particularly long.  
"Sir, if you're not going to get to him until tomorrow, why set him up now?"  
Lydecker narrowed his eyes, glaring at the one who dared question him. "I want him to think about it all night long. We won't need to torture him as much in order to break him."  
The man grimaced and Lydecker was disgusted. This man was too weak to be in this line of work; he wouldn't be able to commit any of the atrocities necessary to accomplish the objectives. "Yes sir," the man said weakly. Lydecker made the mental note to transfer him to another program ASAP before he could spread his weakness. Weakness was like a virus in this job; one man's morality had a tendency to spread.  
Lydecker turned from the officer and walked away. As he left, he heard the man giving the order to set the prisoner up for interrogation.  
  
Main Stairwell, Kelly P. Freeman Federal Building, 11:45 PM  
  
As Lydecker gave the gruesome order to his reticent officer, Max was making her way down the stairwell. Her senses were on alert, since this building was likely to be Lydecker's central base of operations and infested with soldiers. Still, no noise at this point. Apparently Lydecker's people were being very lax.  
Suddenly, a warbling scream echoed through the stairwell. Max recognized it was Johnny. He was probably having one of his fits of insanity and was hallucinating. She shuddered at the intensity of the cry. It was the hopeless sound of the damned, exquisite in its agony. She steeled herself and then made her way down the stairs. If she followed the scream, it would lead her right toward him.  
  
Jam Pony X-Press, 11:47 PM  
  
"Well, that's the last package," Normal said. "Nice job today. We've delivered all the packages we physically have on us, and it only took us around fifteen hours of bicycling. Now Sketchy," he said, giving him 'the eye,' "will we need to slave drive the crew for another day because of an unhealthy obsession?"  
"No," Sketchy said. "I'm not interested in the Night Stalker any more." He gulped and Normal raised an eyebrow. This wasn't like the stupid but well-meaning Sketchy that he knew. Something odd was going on.  
"Good," Normal said. "Hard labor as a form of therapy. I ought to set up my own practice."  
"Dat would be a bad ting," Herbal said. He and Original Cindy were standing with Sketchy as Normal reamed him about his fascination with the Night Stalker. "De brothers and de sisters would not like it if de boss were to be arrested for malpractice."  
"Oh spare me," Normal said in an exaggeratedly exasperated tone. "I get no respect around here." He turned back to Sketchy. "Where's Max?"  
"After the packages were delivered, she disappeared. She said she had some errands to take care of."  
"My, and to think she was so dependable," Normal said with mock sadness. "Tell her that if the rest of them hadn't delivered the rest of the packages before you two set off, I'd have to deduct a significant percentage of her pay. Still, nice job everyone." He turned around and locked his booth. "Now get on home. You folks can't just lollygag around here and use up valuable electricity."  
  
Interior Hallway, Kelly P. Freeman Federal Building, 11:48 PM  
  
"Honestly," Max said. "You people don't know how to treat a lady." She tossed the last of the Black Ops people into a nearby door, which crumbled inward at his impact. Apparently they had some type of security equipment and had recorded her entrance. Five soldiers had been waiting at the bottom of the stairway when she opened the fire door and none of them had been happy to see her. Still, she had moved among them so fast that none of them had been able to fire his gun. "Now," she said to herself. "Where was I?"  
Another scream echoed from down the hall. Apparently Johnny's fit of madness was still going on or they had already started to torture him. Either way, getting to him was a good idea.  
  
First Floor, Kelly P. Freeman Federal Building, 11:49 PM  
  
"We've had a security breach," Lydecker growled as he came in through the front door into the lobby, which was manned only by one soldier. "I just get settled and someone calls, telling me we've got an intruder. How come you never pay attention to these things?"  
"Don't blame me, sir," the guard said. "This stuff went down on the roof and the top floor. I had no clue until you showed up."  
"Come along," Lydecker said, exasperated. "This intruder apparently neutralized a Black Ops team, judging by what the guy who called me from the security center said, and that means I'm going to need the help of someone special."  
  
Office Block, Kelly P. Freeman Federal Building, 11:51 PM  
  
As Lydecker and his people made their way upward, Max had traced the sounds of hell into an empty office complex. The sounds were louder now, indicating that Johnny was close by. She followed the sounds and turned a corner into what used to be someone's office. However, it had apparently been converted into some kind of torture chamber. Her eyes went wide as she saw what horror Lydecker and his men had perpetrated on Johnny.  
Johnny hung on the wall of the office opposite a boarded-up window, held on by rough leather straps. He shook convulsively, although his trembling was not particularly extreme. His poncho and shoes had been removed, revealing that his torso and feet were covered in scars. His wiry frame had little fat, but extensively muscled. Electrodes had been hooked to his ears, face, nipples, hands and feet, and cables ran up his pants legs, indicating that other places were rigged for torture. Sharp metal clips had been clamped onto his arms and stomach and blood was trickling from around them. Johnny's wide staring eyes looked out over everything but saw nothing.  
The torture was beginning again. The blond man had ceased his horrors the previous day only because he, unlike his victim, needed to sleep. Now, that evil character had hung him on the wall in full view of the other Manticore children who didn't escape and had hooked several painful appliances to him. The torture would begin soon; a gory spectacle for others to learn from.  
What? The shape-changer had materialized in front of him, in the torture chamber. She alternated between Max and the adult woman who seemed so familiar. She didn't turn into the female Black Ops officer yet; that was a different part of the mad lands within his skull. The shape-changer came close and began removing the instruments of torture from him. This was a good shape-changer, quite unlike the bad shape-changer that he fought earlier. Strange days, these were, strange days.  
"What are you, shape-changer?" Johnny gasped in a voice ragged from screaming. "Where did you come from and who do you represent?"  
"I'm an old friend," Max said, removing the last of the electrodes. "Take this and you'll understand." She removed a Tryptophan pill from her pocket and handed it to him. "It will fix everything."  
"Whatever," the man said, placing the pill in his mouth with his free hand. Max continued to take apart Lydecker's torture apparatus. She took off the last of the clamps and began working on the electrodes.  
The shape-changer began changing form again, faster and faster. When she first appeared, she was the young Max, then she changed into the adult woman and then changed back. After he took whatever it was she gave him, the changes were coming faster and faster. The world was taking a kaleidoscopic tinge it, becoming more and more surreal. Flashes of the snowy Gillette woods alternated with the torture room of Manticore, and a new image was entering the freakish mess. The image of an office block, a harmless, normal office block. His viewpoint alternated between all three images until there was a flash of light and...  
All was normal. He perceived reality now, the office block, and the young woman who was helping him down from the wall of pain. The flashbacks were gone, the only pain was from the cuts made by the metal clips. "Who...who are you?" he asked, fully sane for the first time in possibly months.  
"I'm Max," Max said, half-smiling. "Apparently the Tryptophan worked."  
"Max?" Johnny asked. "Where have you been the past ten years?"  
"Mostly here," Max said. "In Seattle."  
Suddenly, things started happening very fast. Five soldiers entered the room, guns at ready. Both Max and Johnny leaped as they opened fire, perforating the office block with large quantities of ammunition. Johnny flipped in midair and landed directly in front of the soldiers, immediately attacking them. While in a rational mental state, he was apparently a lethal fighter. The soldiers quickly turned from aggressors to defenders to incapacitated people in several seconds. Johnny tossed two of the soldiers into the wall, knocking them out, then lashed out and broke the nose of another soldier. He continued on to knock out one of the other soldiers and to snap the neck of the last one.  
"My," Max said. "Still tough."  
Johnny shrugged. "I've had a unique upbringing."  
"Nice," an evil-sounding voice said. "Very nice."  
Both Max and Johnny turned. Johnny's jaw dropped and his eyes went wide when he saw the owner of the voice. "The blond man," he gasped, his voice full of terror.  
"Lydecker," Max whispered.  
Lydecker was standing before them in the doorway, along with a huge man with a heavy jaw, black, shorn hair, and wearing dark military garb. Lydecker smiled at them.  
"Max, how nice to see you again. Pity your boyfriend isn't here with you, but I had Johnny here all to myself and we had quite an interesting time. You and your friend seemed to have taken care of my regular people very nicely, but can you beat my secret weapon?"  
"Yes," the other man said in a deep, ominous voice. "You left me behind and it's time to pay."  
"Left you behind?" Max said. "Who are you?"  
The man turned around, revealing a bar code on the back of his neck. #3502305052.  
"Alan?" Johnny gasped. "What the..."  
"You should have taken me with you," Alan said angrily. "Instead, you ditched me. You'll pay for your crimes."  
Alan leaped at them. His sheer size put Max and Johnny on the defensive and they were forced to dodge him. However, Johnny spun around in midair and struck at Alan's unguarded back with his feet, knocking him into a desk.  
"Go for Lydecker!" Johnny shouted. "This one's mine!"  
Max looked to the doorway but Lydecker was gone. Coward. She turned to see that Alan had turned the tables on Johnny while Max was looking for Lydecker.  
Although Johnny's surprise attack had sent Alan tumbling forward, the loyalist had spun around and slammed Johnny into a wall with such force that it left a large dent. He held Johnny by the throat and proceeded to slam him into the wall over and over again, leaving enormous holes. Johnny couldn't possibly be faring well through this whole process, Max thought. Then, she followed thought with action.  
She leaped into the air at Alan, reaching out to strike him in the face. He lashed out with one arm and sent her reeling into a cubicle wall. Once the threat of Max was over, he returned to the process of beating Johnny to death.  
Max bounced off the wall and came back at Alan. Alan turned around to deal with her again, but Max had a plan. As soon as the enemy had turned, Max kicked him in the groin. Hard.  
Alan roared in pain and doubled over. Max smiled at him. "Strictly male weakness," she said.  
"I resemble that remark," Johnny said weakly from the massive hole in the wall that Alan had dug with the X-5 escapee's body. "Now deal with him before he recovers!"  
Max swung up her leg and brought her foot down on the back of Alan's head. Alan toppled to the ground, unconscious. Johnny gave a weak thumbs-up.  
"Thanks," she said. "Now get moving. Lydecker's probably called in a whole army of his goons."  
Johnny rose almost vertically from the hole in the wall and set off running. Max soon followed suit, leaving the unconscious Alan in the ruined office block. Lydecker strolled in a moment later and beheld the carnage.  
"Alan, Alan, Alan," he said sadly. "I'm very disappointed in you." He drew his cell phone out of his pocket and began making calls.  
  
Lobby of the Kelly P. Freeman Federal Building, 11:55 PM  
  
"Now what do we do?" Johnny said as he and Max burst out of a stairwell into the lobby. "Lydecker's people will be coming here in mobs by now and the fact that we beat Alan will make them even more pissed off."  
Max wasn't really paying attention; she was looking off into space with a distant, sad look on her fact and eyes full of tears. She was thinking back to that fateful night of the escape from Manticore.  
Max's seizures had stopped, so they could all get away now. Zack had disarmed all of the adult leaders who had come to take Max away and everyone was ready. Except for one of them. Alan huddled in the corner, eyes wide. When Zack gestured for him to come, he shook his head. Although all of them had been trained to be fearless, he had a sudden attack of nerves. Zack gestured again, more frantically this time. Lydecker's soldiers would be coming now. Alan shook his head even more firmly. Zack sighed with resignation and led the others out...  
"Max, hello? Earth to Max?" Johnny asked, waving his hand in her face. "We've got to keep moving, you know." He seemed quite anxious, almost frantic, to get away from Lydecker, but he wasn't going into a hallucinatory psychosis.  
"I know that," she said, suddenly snappish. "I'm just thinking about Alan and how we left him. Zack, if he were here, would have said it was necessary for the rest of us to get away, but still..."  
"Zack?" Johnny said. "Old fox is out here?"  
"We hung out, for awhile," Max said. "I found him and we fought with Lydecker's men, then he left because he thought us staying together was too dangerous. However, he came back when Brin was taken..."  
"Brin was taken!" Johnny said, eyes wide. "What happened?"  
"Brin was captured by rogue elements of the military to be sold to the Chinese. Zack, Lydecker, and I had to team up to save her but it turned out she had developed a genetic disease that only Lydecker's people could cure." She sniffed. "We had to let Lydecker take her after we escaped Sanders, the leader of the renegades. She would have died within days. Apparently, a third of us developed this disease and only being taken by Lydecker saved their lives."  
Johnny's eyes were wide, but his other senses were attuned to his surroundings. "Let's find a better place to talk about this," he said anxiously. "As I said, we're going to have some nasty company soon."  
Suddenly, a squad of elite troops burst through the doors of the lobby, brandishing firearms. The lead soldiers opened fire on Max and Johnny, who rapidly dodged the fire. Max cart-wheeled toward the soldiers, then leaped into the air and landed among them. Johnny, on the other hand, ran out the door into the cold night.  
What is he doing? Max thought. Is he ditching me? She couldn't see through the glass too well and had no idea of where he was going or what he was doing. She lashed out at two soldiers, knocking one out and breaking the nose of the other. The soldiers outnumbered her, but she was a living weapons system and had a great advantage.  
Suddenly, a Humm-Vee smashed through the doors, crushing two soldiers and scattering the rest. The enormous black vehicle came to a stop mere feet from Max. Johnny leaned his head out and yelled for her.  
"I've gotten us a ride!" he shouted. "Let's get out of here!" Max leaped through the door as Johnny opened it. As soon as his companion was in the vehicle, Johnny changed gears and jammed the gas, sending the vehicle shooting backwards into the empty streets. Johnny spun the wheel and shifted the car into drive, then jammed the gas again. The Humm-Vee launched down the streets at a very rapid clip, away from the Kelly P. Freeman Federal building.  
A moment later, Lydecker entered the lobby by himself. He scowled at the surviving soldiers and the devastation caused by the rogue Manticore prototypes. "Damn," he said. "Foiled again."  
  
Streets of Seattle, 12:00 AM  
  
"Now what?" Johnny asked. "We're likely to pick up some seriously unpleasant company soon. Do you know anywhere safe?" Johnny continued to hold the gas pedal to the floor, sending the car hurtling along at more than seventy miles an hour. If it wasn't for the fact that they were the only car out on the road at this time of night, Johnny would have caused an accident. Max looked in the rear-view mirror. Nobody was following them, yet.  
"I think I know where we can go that's safe," Max said.  
"Where?" Johnny asked anxiously.  
"Lydecker will expect us to go to ground, to places where there are either large numbers of people or very few people. Such places as the areas under the docks, old warehouses, extremely crowded nightclubs, or squatter communities. They won't expect us to be hiding the in the apartment of one of Seattle's wealthiest philanthropists, now will they?"  
  
Logan's Penthouse, 12:12 AM  
  
"Hello?" Max said. "Anybody home?" She and Johnny had just walked in, unannounced, as Max usually did. Logan was probably unaware of Max's old friend, but would be extremely interested in him once he knew.  
"Evening Max," Logan called from his computer room. "What brings you here at this time of night?" Max had no idea what hours Logan kept, but this seemed kind of late. She hadn't been sent on any little errands for some time, which were the usual causes of Logan's not sleeping.  
"Lydecker problems. I don't think his army of Black Ops people will come looking for us in the home of one of Seattle's rich and fashionable."  
Logan wheeled himself out to meet them. He saw Max, who was expected, and someone else whom he did not know. The new arrival was slightly taller than Max, was thin and rather muscular, had short dark hair and silvery eyes. When he saw Johnny, he raised an eyebrow. He wasn't used to having Max bring half-clothed, scarred young men into his penthouse late at night.  
"Logan, this is Johnny. Johnny, this is Logan Cale, a friend of mine."  
"Evening," Johnny said nonchalantly. "Nice place."  
"I've heard of you and Manticore. Nice to meet you," he said politely. He wanted to get off on the right foot with this X-5 escapee, unlike the last one. Johnny's eyes locked on Logan and he tensed, almost as if he was going into attack mode. Max turned toward him.  
"Relax," she said reassuringly. "He's a friend."  
"Not many people know about Manticore," Johnny said. "Most of those who do are enemies. How do I know this character is not one of Lydecker's agents or some kind of traitor?"  
"If I was one of Lydecker's goons," Logan said. "I would have laid some kind of trap. I would have also not have interfered with Lydecker's communications network when Lydecker was hunting Max on Sedro Island some time ago. I don't like that evil bastard any more than you do."  
"Can you prove this?" Johnny asked. "Some of us don't trust those who know too much about the past."  
"He jam up some of Lydecker's equipment, throwing off his pursuit of me. He's also helped Zack and I kidnap Lydecker some time ago."  
Johnny's eyes went wide. "You kidnapped him?"  
"Got him just as he left an ADAP meeting. The guy's a reformed alcoholic. We interrogated him rather brutally, trying to get him to tell us where Brin was. It turns out that he had no idea who took her and that we were abusing someone who, for once, was innocent. As you know, we joined forces to rescue Brin but Lydecker double-crossed us. I thought at first he wanted to sell us to the Chinese along with Brin, to secure his retirement, but he just wanted us and the renegades in one place so he could deal with us all together with his small army of Black Ops types. You already know what happened with Brin."  
"One third of us have been taken," Johnny said sadly. "Where's Zack?"  
"I don't know. I think he'll be lingering in the area though. If you want to see him, go look for him. However, he's said over and over again that staying together is too dangerous so he might not want to be found."  
"Well," Logan said. "I know Max fairly well and I know a little about Zack, but what about you? What's your history?"  
"Why do you want to know?" Johnny asked, voice terse. He was suspicious about the outsider's interest in him.  
"Before I met Max, I had heard about Manticore from my contacts in the military and from various rumors. The military people reported a massive manhunt going on in the western half of the USA for twelve 'gifted children' just before the Pulse and of a man named Lydecker who led the manhunt. During the last days of the post-Pulse anarchy, I heard of children, teenagers whose only distinguishing characteristics were their dependency on Tryptophan and the barcodes on their necks and sometimes were soldiers in the militia forces. They had supernatural combat skills and many of them wanted to know about others of their kind. When Max paid me a visit one night, I knew the signs."  
"When Zack was sixteen, he joined with the Army of the Northwest and fought in their campaign to destroy some kind of drug smuggling/white slavery network," Max said. "He didn't go into much detail but he said they made him one of their field commanders because of his great talent. He left them after the Federals pacified the last of the major bandit forces and he thought they were getting too close."  
"Back to the subject," Logan said. "Johnny, what have you been up to?"  
"When we escaped Manticore, we split up. Zack insisted that everyone go to the major cities and split up, lessening the chances of recapture. I wanted to go through the northern forests, possibly into Canada where they couldn't do anything to me anymore. I though it would be hard for them to find one person in those vast woodlands." He shuddered, remembering ancient pain. "I was wrong. It took them two months, but they tracked me down and took me back. I don't think I even got close to Canada; probably didn't even leave the state."  
"They tortured him," Max said. "Knowing Lydecker, probably in various horrible ways."   
Johnny still hadn't stopped shuddering, but he could still speak. "You don't want to know...what that bastard did to me. I can still see it, in my waking nightmares."  
"As I said earlier," Max said. "Apparently, when deprived of Tryptophan, he goes into some kind of hallucinatory psychosis." Johnny's expression took on a questioning tone at that, but he didn't ask about it. Instead, he described his drug problem.  
"I ran out of Trytophan six weeks ago, when I came to Tacoma," Johnny said. "I can't remember too much since then, other than waking to find myself covered in blood in places I can't remember going to. All that's interlaced with visions...of the horrible things." Johnny began trembling again, eyes looking everywhere as though he expected to be attacked by something.  
Max put her arm around his shoulder, trying to comfort him. Logan raised an eyebrow, looking straight at Johnny. "Johnny, the blood you found on yourself came from people you killed. I have reason to suspect you may be the Night Stalker, Seattle's latest serial killer and media publicity cow." Johnny's eyes went wide at this.  
"I've...killed people? Innocents?"  
"Johnny was always very moral," Max said quickly.  
"Sorry," Logan said. "Of course, if you were in some kind of far-out mental state at the time, you really can't be held legally or morally responsible for that. If you take regular doses of Tryptophan, as you apparently have, you seem like a model human being." Johnny eyes got wider at that, but he remained calm.  
"Well," he said, forcing himself to smile. "Now what? We've been here conversing for what seems like at least an hour and I wonder if Lydecker's hunt has died down."  
"His hunt is eternal," Max said. "But his immediate search through the city won't end until at least daybreak. Thankfully, we parked the Hummer down the street from the building so even if Lydecker's people found it, they won't think to look here."  
Logan shrugged. "Perhaps then, you two should stay here for the night. I have a guest room which you two could use."  
"Thanks," Max said. "Well, what should we do? Sit around all night and watch movies and eat popcorn?"  
"Well, I'd like to hear a bit more about Johnny and his life," Logan said. "I find myself craving knowledge about Manticore."  
Johnny smiled a bit. "One of Lydecker's aims is probably to keep knowledge of Manticore from getting too far. The more who know it, the better."  
"Maybe I should run a Streaming Freedom video on Manticore some day. You, Zack, and Johnny could star in it. It will give Lydecker and his goons quite a fright, possibly rousing enough public opinion against the whole project to make Lydecker give up. After all, public opinion in 2000 stopped Vice President Al Gore from litigating his way into the White House."  
"Lydecker's not some Washington politico, he's a heartless monster," Johnny said tersely.  
"He seems almost like some kind of warped father figure," Max said. "I can't believe I'm defending him, but he seemed to display genuine dislike of the concept of Brin being sold to the Chinese and he refers to us as 'his kids', plus he seems to feel some guilt about killing Eva during the escape. He even invited me to come back to Manticore of my own free will, to 'come home'. To top it off, he seemed to show genuine concern for Brin's well-being when she came down with the weird genetic disease. I still think he's a warped little sicko, however."  
"Lydecker is Satan, the Antichrist, and Hitler all rolled into one," Johnny said. "I don't care if he calls me his personal idol and the greatest visionary of the 21st Century, I still hate him."  
"There was a movie character George Lucas invented for his Star Wars films during the late 20th and early 21st centuries whose named meant "Dark Father" in Dutch. Darth Vader, I think he called him. Lydecker might be a real-life version of this guy, without the breath-mask and the laser sword and all," Logan cut in, half-smiling. He thought he would bowl them over with his extreme knowledge of old movies.  
Johnny ignored him. "Max, perhaps we should try to kill him."  
"When Zack and I kidnapped him, it caused all sorts of trouble and that was at an ADAP meeting. He's likely to be more careful now; heck he might not even leave his forward base anymore. An attack on the Federal Building when it's on alert like it is now would be suicidal."  
  
Meeting Room, 12:45 AM  
  
"I'm tired and that means my judgement is going to have lapses," Lydecker said angrily, "but I'm still right. Alan, how in the hell didn't you beat them? You're bigger and stronger than they are, and all your potential genetic flaws have been corrected." He faced Alan across the table of the meeting room, the two locked in a combat debriefing.  
"I don't know, sir. However, remind me next time to make sure that Max doesn't kick me in the balls, sir," Alan said. "That pretty much ended the fight right there, sir."  
"Women," Lydecker sighed in a grossly exaggerated fashion. "They so love to do that in fights."  
"Sir, permission to join the hunting team requested."  
"Not entirely yes or no, Alan. I'll need your knowledge of their character to track them and predict their movements from here, but I can position you on teams that are likely to catch them when we start getting close. My conventional troops are never a match for them, even with the advantage of surprise and greater numbers."  
"Perhaps we should use the older Hydra warriors to catch them," Alan said. "They're older than the Manticore people and are less genetically advanced, but they're more of a match for them than conventional Special Forces."  
Lydecker smiled at his protégé. "That's a good idea, Alan. I'll have to call up General Kelly, who's in charge of Hydra, and see if I can borrow some of his people."  
  
Logan's Penthouse, 2:56 AM  
  
Logan had finally given in and went to bed. This left Max and Johnny sitting next to each other in Logan's plush living room, which looked out over the city. Logan had loaned Johnny some of his clothes, which fit the X-5 escapee surprisingly well. The man was now wearing pair of jeans and an old T-shirt advertising the Seattle Mariners. Johnny seemed to have gone into a more pensive mood, staring intently at the mahogany table across from the two of them. Max was concerned with Johnny's mood changes; they might precede another bout of hallucinatory psychosis.  
"There were twelve of us free, you know," Johnny said. "Now there are only eight. A third of us have been taken by Lydecker, back to Manticore. Makes one conscious of his or her own mortality, doesn't it? Knowing that at any second the black helicopters or black Humm-Vees of Lydecker's goon squad could come crashing down on us at any minute."  
"Or perhaps one of our 'siblings,' brainwashed into fighting against us," Max said. "You never know. Perhaps next time Lydecker comes for us, it will be with Rick or Jeri or even Brin as his muscle."  
"Irony bites," Johnny said morosely. He seemed more lost and depressed than usual, even though that night was the first time Max had seen him in a decade. Max put her arm around his shoulder, to reassure him a bit. Johnny leaned a bit closer. "Thanks for caring," he said simply. "It helps brighten the sad parts."  
A few seconds passed. "Ah, what the hell," Johnny said, suddenly brightening. "Let's raid the rich guy's wines and have a little party. I don't think he'll mind, now would he? Besides, all this talk about Lydecker and our captured 'siblings' and our own mortality royally sucks. Well, what do you say?"  
"I don't think so," Max said. "Logan would appreciate being asked first, but he's asleep now and he wouldn't appreciate being woken up. You'd like him to show you just as much respect, now would you?"  
"Yep," Johnny said. "Oh well, then what?"  
  
Roof of the Kelly P. Freeman Federal Building, 5:00 AM  
  
The enormous Chinook came in for a landing atop the Kelly P. Freeman Federal Building at exactly 5:00 AM and Lydecker was there to meet them. As the back doors opened up and seven figures in black emerged, the Colonel smiled. "Thanks, General," Lydecker said into the cellular phone he had.  
"Any time, Deck," the General said. "These guys will help you quite a bit with tracking down your two runaways. Send them back once they're finished."  
"Yes sir." The first of the Hydra warriors had walked up to him. "Reporting for duty, sir," the man in black said. He had silvery eyes like Johnny, but the color was not natural. Rather, it was the result of cybernetic augmentation that gave him increased visual acuity and longer sight range.  
"You've arrived on time, soldier," Lydecker said. "Find a place for you and your team. We'll be ready to go in the morning."  
  
Logan's Residence, 7:15 AM  
  
"Well," Max said. "I've got to go to work this morning." The two had simply been "hanging out" for the past several hours, with very little to do. She got up from the sofa and set off for the door. Johnny simply stayed where he was.  
"Have fun," he said. As soon as he had left, he began thinking. Before he ran out of Trytophan, he had to take a pill on average once every few days to prevent his seizures. He had always stopped the seizures very early on, so he had no clue until a few hours ago that left untreated, his seizures could progress into insane killing sprees. He'd have to get Tryptophan in order to avoid killing innocents and he'd have to get money in order to buy Trytophan, but in order to get the money, he'd have to get a job. Not an easy proposition in a city patrolled by a psychotic military officer who knew every detail of one's appearance. However, the consequences of another prolonged period without the drug were worse than risking one's freedom in order to work.  
  
Jam Pony X-Press, 7:30 AM   
  
"My, Miss Dependable is in right on time," Normal said as Max walked in. "Don't sneak off again like you did earlier."  
"Extenuating circumstances," Max told him. Normal looked nonplussed at Max.  
"Read my lips, no new work breaks," he said, wagging his finger in characteristic George Herbert Walker Bush fashion.  
"Will you break that promise as fast as your idol did?" Max asked.  
"He was a good President," Normal called. "He managed the Gulf War well! Everyone makes mistakes at least once!"  
"De Most High says to forget whad is behind and focus on what is in de future," Herbal said, swooping down the stairs in all his sartorial splendor. "And Normal, de Bob Marley Memorial Concert is in three days. Can I get off work?"  
"Can I get off work on June 12th?" Normal asked. "Or will the business disintegrate without my expert leadership?"  
"Brothers and sisters, is it not righteous to let de workers have breaks?" Herbal asked.  
"Hours are 8:00 AM to 7:00 PM," Normal said. "And you get a lot of breaks simply due to the rate of package delivery. So don't whine about how overworked you are. It'd be a lot more strict if Mr. Sivapapa whatever was in charge."  
Sketchy, who had been standing in the corner near the bikes, broke down laughing. "What?" Normal said, perturbed. "What's so funny about Mr. Sivapapasudaraman?" Sketchy cracked up even more and Normal scratched his head. "You guys are weird. Now, if we're all here and we're all bored, let's get started a little early."  
Everyone groaned.  
  
Port Districts, 8:00 AM  
  
Johnny walked down the street, eyes alert. Although he needed a job in order to keep himself in food and Tryptophan, he also needed to avoid Lydecker's soldiers. Therefore, although he kept an eye out for businesses that operated along the waterfront, he also listened for Humm-Vee or helicopter engines. He had already fenced Lydecker's Humm-Vee for $6,000 to chauffeur service, which had set right to work painting fanciful dragons on the sides, but that money wouldn't last. When he had last purchased Tryptophan, it cost him $100 for fifty pills and that was in Las Vegas, which was close to some chemical plants. Seattle, which was known for being a trading center and oil refining area, would only have the needed drug at a much higher price, if at all. That, plus food and lodging, would eat up money quickly.  
"Excuse me," he asked a vendor who seemed to have his hands full serving several customers at once. "I need a job. Do you have any openings?"  
"Not now, too busy!" the man, a short, bony looking character, shouted in a loud Russian accent. "Find someone else!" The man stopped talking and continued to shove large bratwursts in the direction of his clients. At least this guy had customers; most of the nearby shops were deserted.  
"My, what manners go around these days," Johnny sighed, then continued walking along the port district. "Jobs are scarcer then hen's teeth around here." He looked towards a series of stalls in a covered market, but there were very few customers and the vendors looked bored, indicated that nobody had shown any interest in awhile. He looked around a bit, hoping to see something that might lead him in his search for employment, but something else caught his eye instead. That something else was a bit out of place and could signal trouble.  
It was a tall man in dark military garb who had strange silvery eyes. He carried a compact Uzi pistol, which looked to be fully automatic. The man was following him. He looked around a bit more and saw two more moving downward from a side street. This signaled trouble. He began walking down the street at a faster clip, hoping to get away from them.  
"Colonel Lydecker," one of them said into his radio. "We've found this 'Johnny' but we believe he's spotted us."  
"Corner him somewhere and incapacitate him," Lydecker's voice said from the other end. "Then radio me with your location. Try to take him in a group; this guy's engineering is a full generation ahead of yours."  
"Yes, sir," the soldier said, agreeing only with the orders and not Lydecker's opinions. The cybernetic devices that augmented his major muscle groups, acting as extra muscular power and serving to keep his existing muscles in good condition, never tired and never weakened. The Manticore troops, who had been designed for speed and stealth more so than raw physical power, would be hard-pressed to bring down one of the Hydra warriors.  
  
Near the Space Needle, 8:10 AM  
  
"Here's your package and thank you for patronizing Jam Pony X-Press," Max said cheerfully to the man who leaned against the light pole. "Don't hurt yourself with it now." She knew that the delivery was a gun of some kind; she could tell by the noises it made inside its box. She didn't like guns; they brought up too many bad memories.  
"Don't worry, young lady," the kindly-looking old man said. "It's only a precaution. With the crime rate up and the police as unreliable as they are these days, one should be prepared. Besides, I know how to use these things." He ran his fingers through his thinning white hair and smiled. "Good luck with your job." He turned and walked away. For a man his age, his movements were surprisingly smooth.  
"Thank you, sir," Max said and pedaled away from him. She had two more packages to deliver on the early-morning part of her job. As she drove down the road, she didn't notice the two men with silvery eyes standing by an old sign. One of them talked into a walkie-talkie as he saw her and the two set off at a fast clip in pursuit.  
  
Port Districts, 8:12 AM  
  
Johnny looked behind him to see the small group of silvery-eyed troops in hot pursuit. He looked around him to see a possible way to get away from these people without attracting undue attention, especially from the sector police standing next to the light tank on the corner. He saw an alleyway and began walking towards it, keeping an eye on the mysterious pursuers. They turned with eerie synchronization and began following him.  
He began walking and they picked up the pace just enough to keep the ratio of movement the same. Their slightly faster pace was carrying them closer and closer to him. He entered the alleyway and leaped up onto the wall, then pushed off before he could drop so that he ended up leaping to the opposite wall, then repeated the process a la Jackie Chan until he was on the roof of one of the buildings. He then took off running down the long roof.  
Two of Johnny's pursuers clambered up the wall behind him and took off in pursuit. One of them leaped, his legs moving in a curious fashion, and landed in front of him. Johnny had no choice put to attack. He threw a punch at the warrior, who seized his hand and spun, flipping him. Johnny seized the man's neck with his legs as he went over and flipped the enemy in turn, sending them both crashing to the ground. Johnny was up first and brought his foot down onto the back of the other warrior's head, hopefully knocking him out. The man lay still, but that was the least of his problems. The other one leaped on top of him, moments later. The new arrival pinned Johnny easily.  
"You couldn't run forever, 'Johnny'," the new warrior, a young female with reddish hair, said in a feminine but harsh voice. "Lydecker's waiting."  
"Not a chance in hell, lady," Johnny said, head-butting her in the nose. She gave a small cry and leaned up, clutching at her face with the free hand. Johnny used his other hand to strike her on the chin, sending her reeling. He flipped up onto his feet and kicked her full in the face before she could get to her feet. She collapsed with a moan. Johnny exhaled, tired by a fight for the first time in a long time. These people weren't as tough as any of the Manticore people he had fought with, but they were by no means as easy to deal with as Lydecker's Black Ops people. However, his troubles weren't over yet.  
"Two down, one to go. However, I'm armed," the last of the new arrivals said as he leaped up from the alley in what appeared to be a single jump. He was the first one of the Hydra warriors that Johnny had seen, the one with the Uzi. He opened fire on Johnny, aiming for the legs and stomach for hits that would incapacitate, but not kill. Apparently these people, who apparently were allied to Lydecker, wanted him alive.  
Johnny leaped to avoid the stream of Uzi rounds and tumbled through the air to meet his opponent. The man raised his gun, still firing, in order to hit him. As Johnny slammed feet-first into the man's face, a bullet struck him in the shin and ricocheted away, leaving several shallow cuts and bone gouges.  
"Damn!" Johnny cried out. "That hurts!" He channeled his anger and pain into the blows that he was sending into the man's face, bruising him and breaking his nose. He moved too fast for the man to react, even though the enemy was more thickly built than he was and probably was stronger. The man was apparently stunned, so he was meeting little resistance. Then, he heard something behind him.  
"Forgetting something?" another voice said and Johnny turned to see the first of the mysterious warriors, his face cut by his impact into the roof, standing directly behind him. Before he could blink, the man was upon him. The Hydra soldier got two nasty blows into Johnny's face, bloodying his nose, before Johnny could work his foot into the man's stomach. Then, he flipped him off. The man yelled as he flew through the air. Johnny watched in satisfaction as he tumbled into the alley, but the enemy seized the edge of the roof and flipped himself back up, assuming a fighting stance.  
"Why won't you just stay down?" Johnny said, half-imploringly.  
"That's a good question," the female soldier said. Johnny turned to see her standing mere feet behind him before she kneed him in the crotch. Everything went red for a moment and pain exploded through his body. By the time his vision cleared, all three of them were standing over him, looking mighty pleased with themselves.  
"That was quick," the third Hydra warrior said, wiping blood from his broken nose. "Lydecker said to expect a serious fight from him because his engineering is ahead of ours."  
"Lydecker was right," Johnny said, sweeping them with his leg. He knocked the soldier with the broken nose into the female, knocking both of them down. However, the soldier with the cut face leaped away from the proceedings. Johnny wasn't interested in another sparring match, so he snatched the Uzi from the soldier before he could recover from his fall, pointed it at the enemy, and squeezed the trigger. Five rounds slammed into the enemy's stomach and chest, but the man only doubled over. Some blood trickled from the wounds, but they apparently did little damage.  
"Internal mesh armor is good," the man said. "You'd need cop-killer bullets to do much damage to me."  
"Oh fine," Johnny said. He raised the pistol and fired exactly two rounds. Those rounds pierced his enemy's eyes and exploded out the back of his skull. The man dropped dead and Johnny turned to see the other two gone. "Where'd they go?" Johnny asked himself. "This is unusual." He was left alone on the rooftop, scratching his head. The other two hung by their hands from the edge of the roof twenty feet from Johnny. They'd get the drop on him later, when he came by the other side of the building.  
  
Jam Pony X-Press, 8:30 AM  
  
"Good job with all the packages," Normal said. "I might just make you employee of the month, despite your little disappearing act last night."  
"Thanks," Max said. "I really appreciate that." She didn't particularly care, actually, but she wanted to be as nice as possible in order to get away from the overbearing pest.  
Suddenly, one of the other riders whom Max didn't know careened right by Normal. The irate supervisor spilled coffee on himself as he leaped back to avoid the man. Normal yelled after him. "Watch where you're going, bucko! This shirt was expensive even before the Pulse!" He shook his fist at the departing rider. Max smiled in spite of herself and began backing away, hoping Normal didn't notice.  
"Max, take this package to the Seattle-Tacoma Airport," Normal said, handing her a sizable box. "Give it to a man named Saunders and make him give you $10 for it first. Make it snappy."  
"Sure," Max said, putting her feet back on the pedals. She pedaled away at a faster-than-usual clip. She pedaled down the street and turned the right corner, heading towards the Airport, which was on the other side of the city. The silver-eyed soldiers appeared from the crowd on the left corner and saw her pedaling away. One of them scowled and said some harsh words to the other and they picked up their pace, pursuing Max through the city.  
  
Old Chinatown, 8:45 AM  
  
Johnny walked down the street with a faster-than-usual gait. The encounter with the silver-eyed people had shaken him a bit. Up until fifteen minutes ago, he had never had Lydecker's goons come that close in a public situation. Perhaps it would be a good idea to go to Vancouver, where Lydecker's web of spies and soldiers wouldn't be so stifling, if it was there at all. Besides, prices of everything in general were lower in Canada, including Tryptophan. It had already been eight hours, more or less, since his last dose, and he imagined the first of the seizures would be coming in forty hours. He had to have another dose by that time or the hallucinatory lunacy would start again and more people would die. Max might have a few extra pills, but he wouldn't want to impose.  
Job, then food, then Tryptophan. Very important.  
  
Meeting Room, 8:45 AM  
  
"Hydra troops report contact with Johnny," one of Lydecker's aides said. This one was a slightly less nondescript man, who had contacts and an earring, along with long sideburns. "One of them is dead, shot through the eyes. The other two have injuries of some kind or another, ranging from bruises to a broken nose. Johnny is nowhere to be found."  
"Damn," Lydecker swore. "Have the other troops gotten to Max yet?"  
"Two are following now, sir. Max is on a bike and they're on foot, so they have a slight disadvantage. They can't pursue openly, not in public."  
"That's marginally better," Lydecker said. "Still, one bird in hand is better than two in the bush. Is there anyone fitting Zack's description that the Hydra people have noticed? Or any cars fitting the description of my SUV? I'm a little ticked about that, mind you. That car, and the gas needed to fuel it, costs a ton these days, even with my military connections."  
"Nobody's seen your car, sir," the aide said. "Zack's gone to ground pretty well. He might not be in the city anymore. I haven't heard from any of our people in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Portland, Olympia, or Sacramento, so if he's left the city, he hasn't gone anywhere that we have agents. Smart guy."  
"The best of them escaped that night," Lydecker said. "The very best. If it wasn't for the aging disease, we would never have caught the first three and Max and Zack would have never surrendered Brin to me. Eight more of them, dispersed through a third of a billion people in less-than-ideal conditions. A damned shame, in my opinion."  
"Yes, sir," the aide said. "Perhaps you should try to gain access to the hover-drones. They might provide better coverage and enable us to spot Johnny and possibly Zack."  
"I don't want to have to contribute any more to the corrupt morass that is this city's government than I have to," Lydecker growled. "These sleazy politicos nauseate me."  
  
Streets of Seattle, 8:47 AM  
  
Max pedaled down the street, heading for her destination. She was totally oblivious to the two men with silver eyes who pursued her through the crowds. As she came to one of the checkpoints, she took out the ID card that the Sector Police always insisted that people carry. The short, red-haired Sector cop looked over her ID and gave it back, yawning as he did so. "Carry on," he said without much care. She pedaled around the checkpoint and continued on toward her destination.  
Meanwhile, on the same street, Johnny was making his way through the crowds toward the checkpoint. He saw Max pedaling around the Sector police, but he also saw the two silvery-eyed characters in pursuit. Max apparently did not notice her unusual pursuers. Johnny, who had experience with those characters, immediately went into attack mode. He widened his pupils, getting a good idea of the thickness of the people on the street and how to get to Max the fastest. He had to warn her about the silver-eyed men and their malign intentions.  
As Max came closer, the Hydra soldiers picked up their pace. Apparently they too had managed to glimpse him and wanted to close in for the kill. All four of them were heading for a colossal collision in a public street. There were Sector cops nearby, armed with machine guns, so this confrontation would be pretty interesting, to say the least.  
Suddenly, Max turned down a side street and disappeared. One of the Hydra soldiers split off to pursue her, but the other kept walking towards Johnny. The one heading towards the male X-5 escapee was tall, blond, and armed with an Uzi pistol. Johnny had the Uzi pistol from the battle with the other silver-eyed soldiers, but he had no idea how much ammunition was in it. He did know, however, that the Hydra troops were invulnerable to body shots due to some kind of internal armor. He'd have to shoot through the eyes to kill or through the joints to cripple. However, Johnny had no intention of involving the Sector cops in the fight. He ducked into a back alley. A moment later, the Hydra warrior joined him.  
"You're mine, Johnny," the man said in a harsh, nasty voice. "You may have killed Bud, but you will not escape me."  
Johnny smiled as he leaped vertically onto the fire escape. "I've lured you into a trap," Johnny said. "Come on." The Hydra warrior smiled evilly and leaped up as well. However, Johnny reached out as the man rose to meet him and struck him in the face. The resulting force/motion chaos sent the enemy toppling into a Dumpster. Johnny leaped down, smashing into the Hydra soldier's chest with his feet. However, the adversary was far from finished.  
He somehow slid out from under Johnny's feet and flipped up to face him. Then, he punched him in the face, sending the X-5 escapee toppling. As Johnny fell backward out of the Dumpster, the hunter surged forward to press his advantage. Johnny responded to this by kicking his opponent in the groin and sending him toppling out of the trash receptacle and into the main alleyway. Johnny dropped down to finish him off.  
However, it wasn't that easy. Someone had seen the battle and alerted the nearby Sector cops. One of them, armed with an M-16 automatic rifle, strode over to the entrance of the alleyway. As soon as he saw the combat, he opened fire on the two combatants on full automatic. Johnny saw the man raise his rifle and had a very good idea.  
As he and the Hydra warrior were grappling, Johnny spun him around to face the police officer's firepower. He heard the meaty thud of bullets smacking into the enemy. Johnny knew the attack would probably not kill the victim due to his internal body armor, but it would definitely give his enemy some type of disadvantage. He saw the soldier's eyes go wide as the bullets continued to hammer into him, but the man had apparently not suffered lethal damage.  
"Nice try," the man wheezed. "But it takes at least a grenade to do serious damage to the internal armor we Hydra warriors have. You won't win this way, punk." The rival super-soldier smiled with bloody teeth, indicating some damage had been done during the battle.  
"Hydra," Johnny whispered. The X-5 group was from a project called Manticore and its members were the results of combining human DNA with the animal genes necessary for certain physical traits such as improved vision and reflexes. Apparently another project, this one involving internal armor and possibly cybernetic strength enhancers, was also named for a mythological monster. Things were getting pretty strange about now.  
The firing had stopped. Apparently the officer had figured out at this point that something was very odd about the fact that one of the fighters was still holding the other up and the one who was absorbing all the ammunition had not died. "What's going on here?" he gasped.  
"Not much," Johnny said. "Here, catch!" He threw the Hydra soldier into the cop, knocking both of them down. He then leaped from the ground to the side of the building, pushed himself off onto the opposite wall, and repeated the process until he was on the roof of one of the buildings. Then, he took off running, hoping to find Max and warn her of the problem that was facing them.  
  
Meeting Room, 8:49 AM  
  
"Another Hydra warrior reports contact with Johnny," Lydecker's punkish aide said. "However, he's received the usual fistfight damage, superficial damage from massive bullet barrage, and possible internal damage from a bullet that has pierced his mesh armor. Should we bring him in?"  
"Are his wounds interfering with his combat ability?" Lydecker asked. "If so, he can come back and rest. We can even Medevac him via chopper if absolutely necessary. However, unless he's dying or crippled, I want him to continue the hunt along with the others. This guy's got titanium under his skin, so he can't be hurt too bad. Relay my orders."  
"Yes, sir." The aide walked off to deliver the message. Lydecker frowned. The Hydra troops were designed more for frontal line-breaking attacks while the Manticore soldiers were designed for commando operations in which survival depended on being quiet and getting in and out of the target area quickly. The Hydra soldiers could receive more punishment than the Manticore troops and keep fighting, but in terms of mobility they were at a disadvantage. Their mesh armor made them physically slower than the X-5 group, although their reflexes were just as good. If Johnny could keep ahead of the pursuit forces and only engage them on his terms, he stood a good chance of defeating Lydecker's hunters.  
Damn.  
  
Highway Leading into Downtown Seattle, 9:00 AM  
  
Max had completed her delivery and was pedaling back along one of the roads when she spotted a curious character coming towards her. The person was male, was powerfully-built, and had dark hair in a crew cut. However, his most distinguishing feature was his silver eyes. He carried a pistol, but it was pointed downward. As soon as he saw Max, he began moving towards in a more determined fashion. Max looked around to see nobody else in the immediate area. This was out on one of the roads leading into Seattle proper, so there weren't too many people that time of day.  
The silver-eyed man began running towards her. He wasn't as fast as Max was at top speed, but he moved far faster than a normal human. He raised his pistol as he ran and once he got within range, he began shooting. Max leaped off her bike and hurtled forward in the air. The man raised his air, still shooting, but he was a bit too slow. Max was upon him.  
She got hold of the gun and tried to pull it from his hand, but the man's grip was nearly unbreakable. The tendons in his hand were thicker and there appeared to be extra muscles, which gave reason for the increased strength. With his free hand, he struck at Max's face and torso. The blows he inflicted were a lot more damaging than those delivered by ordinary humans, which were pieces of evidence showing that he was more than human.  
Max decided on a change of plans. She kicked the man in the groin as hard as she could and he groaned horribly, his grip loosening on the gun. Next came a heavy blow to the bridge of the enemy's nose with the heel of her hand, shattering it. The man groaned again and let go of the gun. Max stepped back, looking at the gun in a curious manner, then flipped it into some nearby bushes. She then brought her fists up in a fighting stance.  
"You'll pay, bitch," the man groaned in a harsh, ragged tone. "However, Lydecker wants you alive. I'll just beat you into submission."  
"Try that and you'll have some painful and creative things to your body," Max said. "Bring it on."  
The man roared in fury and charged. Even though blood was streaming from his nose and he ran a bit off-kilter due to Max's kick, he still moved extremely quickly and with great strength. If Max was a normal human being, she'd be dead a hundred times over. However, Max was far from normal and it showed in the battle that followed.  
As the man came closer, Max leaped up and kicked him in the face with her right foot. His broken nose made a wet sound as her foot struck it and the tip of her foot caught in his eye. As soon as her foot lost contact with his face, she brought her left foot into play and hooked his other eye. He roared again and swung blindly at her, but she had already landed behind him. She kicked him swiftly in the back of the head, sending him toppling over, unconscious.  
"You're obsolete," Max said. At this point, she had decided that apparently Lydecker had loosed one of his other creations on her. She climbed back on her bike and pedaled away, back towards the city.  
  
Meeting Room, 9:15 AM  
  
"Another one of the Hydra warriors reporting in," Lydecker's aide said. "He found Max on the city's outskirts and she basically beat the shit out of him. He reports that he has an utterly smashed nose, a possible concussion, and a whole lot of bruises and miscellaneous fistfight damage."  
Lydecker sighed. "Honestly, these people were engineered to provide infantry forces with soldiers capable of withstanding massive firepower and getting the job done. A contingent of these people broke through Chinese lines on Quemoy in 2010 simply by walking into them and killing the entire enemy force in a series of nasty hand-to-hand engagements but yet they can't even beat one Manticore soldier. It gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling, you know. The project that I'm in charge of has produced America's finest augmented soldier yet."  
"Sir, what should we do? Many of the Hydra troops are damaged and one is dead."  
"Bring them all in. Fat lot of good they've done; let's send them back to General Kelly for repairs and tell him to debrief them. Now why don't you go find Alan for me? That would be a whole lot better."  
  
Jam Pony X-Press, 9:20 AM  
  
"Excuse me," Johnny said as he walked in. "Have you seen Max anywhere?" He wasn't really asking anyone in particular, but an African-American with a Jamaican-style multicolored cap answered his question.  
"Max is out on a run ride now," Herbal said. "Can I help you?"  
"I'm a friend of hers. I need to speak with her most urgently." Johnny was becoming agitated, looking right and left.  
Herbal frowned. "Why don't you wade right dere," he said.  
"Sure," Johnny said. Herbal disappeared somewhere, leaving Johnny anxiously waiting and looking around. He had to warn Max about the silver-eyed men and women; they were a deadly threat to all of them. His hands trembled a bit as he thought about the mysterious attackers. Trembling hands could be a sign of extreme agitation, but they could be something far worse.  
"Uh oh," Johnny said, an undercurrent of fear creeping into his voice. It had been less than 24 hours since he had been brought back to sanity by the Tryptophan, but it looked like the seizures were beginning again. If not stopped by Tryptophan, they would build and build into episodes of hallucinatory psychosis in which he would quite possibly kill someone or even many someones. Perhaps the combat with the Hydra troops had caused some kind of chemical imbalance; even the battle with the Black Ops people during his capture wasn't that intense of a workout.  
"Can I help you?" an annoying nasal voice said and Johnny turned to see Normal approaching. The blond supervisor, complete with his headset, apparently thought that Johnny was either a lucrative new customer or a potential employee. Either way, someone he wanted to speak to. Johnny stared blankly at Normal, eyes wide.  
His perception was starting to act funny. Every few seconds, Normal's image was replaced for a split second by that of Lydecker. Johnny told himself over and over again that this was not Lydecker, he was simply an annoying guy with a headset. That alone kept him from going over the edge and attacking the supervisor.  
"I'm just...waiting for someone," Johnny said. "Don't mind me."  
"I don't tolerate loiterers," Normal said. "Tell me who or I'll call the cops."  
"Max," Johnny said. "Happy now?"  
"State your business," Normal said. "I don't want one of my valued employees getting distracted by useless things."  
"Um, Normal?" Sketchy broke in. "You see, I've just had another run-in with the Sector cops and..." his voiced trailed off as soon as he spotted Johnny. Even though Johnny had cleaned himself up a bit and was wearing better clothes, the rather dim-witted messenger recognized him as the deadly Night Stalker whom he and Max had encountered before.  
"The Night Stalker!" Sketchy yelled. "Run!" He bolted and Normal turned away from him to face Johnny. Johnny, however, got the worst of it. The combination of all those reminders sent him spiraling back into madness.  
"Lydecker!" Johnny screamed and launched himself at Normal. Normal yelled in half-fear half-surprise and jumped back. All this, plus Sketchy's recognition of Johnny, brought other messengers from Jam Pony X-Press running. Although none of them liked Normal, none of them wanted to see their supervisor torn to pieces by a notorious maniac and thus expose them to the risk of having a new, more imperious supervisor. A lot of them joined in the fray immediately.  
He had the dark monster of his nightmares by the throat now, and was pounding his skull into the concrete floor of the building. Now perhaps closure was coming; the death of Lydecker was at hand. Lydecker swung a fist and caught Johnny on the chin, but it had little effect. Johnny was an enraged engine of death at this point and nobody could stop him, nobody could hurt him at all.  
A swinging pipe came from somewhere, but Johnny blocked it with his forearm. The combination of speed and being blocked caused the pipe to snap in half. He kicked back, catching in the stomach whoever swung the pipe at his skull.  
Still holding the smashed half of the pipe, Original Cindy was sent tumbling backwards into some crates. Sketchy, who rather stupidly opted for a frontal attack on Johnny, soon joined her. "Why Cindy," he said a moment after he landed on top of her. "I didn't know you cared." He smiled in a rather moronic fashion.  
"Don't get any ideas, biker boy," Original Cindy said.  
Meanwhile, the fight was getting worse. Normal was getting the worst of it from the insane Johnny, but the domineering supervisor wasn't without help. Herbal, easily one of the toughest of the assembled messengers, had recently waded into the fray.  
He caught Johnny on the chin with a powerful kick and sent him toppling off the boss. "De Most High has given you into my hand!" he declared. "Now time to be shown the door." Johnny flipped back up and assumed a combat stance. Several of the other messengers began circling the new arrival, wary of his demonstrated combat abilities but itching for a fight nonetheless.  
Into this lunacy pedaled Max. She had just left one fight and came back to work to find another. In the center of the maelstrom was Johnny, who looked a little worse for wear but was still capable of mass destruction, although a beat-up Normal was off to the side and a righteously-mad Herbal was in attack mode. Sketchy and Original Cindy were laying amidst a bunch of smashed crates, the latter trying to get out from under the former.  
"Johnny!" she shouted at him. Johnny spun away from Herbal to see her.   
The shape-changer was back. She was alternating between the young Max, the older Max, and a female Black Ops soldier who looked like Max. However, the older Max was beginning to replace the other characters. The changes alternated faster and faster until reality came back to hit him in the face...  
"Whoa," Johnny said, looking at all the devastation he had caused. "What happened?"  
"That's why I'd like to know," Normal groaned. "I ask him why he's loitering around here, then he up and screams 'Lydecker!' at me and starts a mini-riot here. Read my lips: This guy's insane. How is it that you know this guy, anyway? He was waiting for you."  
Max thought fast. "He's my brother," she said quickly. "He's a little quirky and sometimes loses touch with reality."  
This was a little much for Johnny. His eyes rolled back in his head and he fainted.  
"Well, why don't you remove this guy from this legitimate place of business then?" Normal said accusingly. "This guy's dangerous!"  
Original Cindy's eyes were wide at this point. "Max, you told me that you didn't have a family. And why is it that you look so beat up?"  
"It's all a long story. Now, does anybody have anything that smells really bad? I think I may need to revive him and remove him."  
  
Logan's Residence, 10:00 AM  
  
"Hmmm," Logan said as he heard Max and Johnny's story. "Apparently if something reminds him too much of Manticore, he goes crazy." Max had taken Johnny to Logan's penthouse after the episode at Jam Pony X-Press.  
"This was a small episode," Johnny said. "I didn't need Tryptophan to end it and it wasn't a lack of Trytophan that started it. When I saw Normal for the first time, he started looking like Lydecker and I thought that this was my big opportunity to be rid of him forever. Now, I end up trashing Jam Pony X-Press and jeopardizing Max's job. Life sucks."  
"How erudite," Logan said. "Well, I know a way to deal with this problem."  
"How?" Max asked. "If he goes off the handle every time something reminds him of Manticore, then the city of Seattle's got a big problem."  
"This hasn't happened before and I've dealt with plenty of blond males in my time. Perhaps being in the same city as Lydecker is triggering all kinds of psychoses and problems that I don't know about," Johnny said regretfully. "Perhaps I should leave the city and stop ruining everyone's day."  
"Well," Logan said. "There's a mental hospital in Vancouver. The director there owes me a favor or two. Perhaps I can convince her to take Johnny for some mental trauma therapy. If he can deal successfully with his waking nightmares and can get some help, the hallucinatory psychosis problem can be solved. Apparently it's the combination of Manticore memories and lack of Tryptophan that cause these fits, although the recent events at Jam Pony are an exception. If one factor is dealt with, the whole problem can go away."  
"Seems like a good idea. Besides, if I'm out of the country, then Lydecker's people might not be able to get to me. Heck, why don't you come along, Max? We can start over in a foreign country away from Lydecker and his goons."  
"American immigration into Canada is closely monitored. Although you can get a medical exemption from Logan, I'd to go through all sorts of requirements to enter Canada legally. Besides, I've got too much here to leave behind."  
"If it's all agreed, I'll get to it right away," Logan said. "I can have someone take you there by three this afternoon."  
  
Meeting Room, 11:00 AM  
  
"Colonel, I've found something," one of Lydecker's aides said. This one was a tall man in nondescript clothing who wore a headset similar to Normal's. "Someone is scheduling for a man to be taken to a Canadian mental hospital whose special requirements include taking Tryptophan on a weekly basis. I think that this must be Johnny."  
"Good job," Lydecker said. "Find me the departure date and I'll have Alan and some others waiting for them. Heck, call General Kelly. Have him send a couple of Hydra troops too. I want no chances taken with this bag."  
  
Dock #45C, Puget Sound, 3:30 PM  
  
The sun had come out, brightening the scene and adding color to the otherwise drab surroundings. Max, Logan, and Johnny were all standing near a pier support on the Seattle waterfront, waiting. To their right was the entrance of the Sound and to the left were the big docks where the cruise and container ships landed. Logan's friend, the hospital director, had sent a boat to pick Johnny up and take him to Vancouver. There, he'd get the necessary help and hopefully be cured of the Manticore nightmares that had haunted him for most of his life.  
"How long do you think this will take?" Max asked Logan.  
"I'm not sure," Logan said. "It depends on how deep-seated the trauma is. It could take less than a week, or it could take months. Hopefully, it won't take very long."  
Johnny was being very quiet throughout the conversation. His gray eyes looked out over Puget Sound, taking in all the details of the harbor. He held a small duffel in his left hand, which was full of clothes that Logan had let him borrow. "Nice city," he said. "Too bad I couldn't stay here too long. Perhaps I'll come back, once I'm done with all the psychiatric stuff."  
"Why?" Max asked. "Most Americans would kill to get into Canada as migrant laborers; you can get in free with minimal effort. Besides, Lydecker's goons probably won't be able to get to you there."  
Johnny shrugged. "Who knows?"  
  
Skies Over Puget Sound, 3:31 PM  
  
Lydecker watched from his helicopter as it flew over Puget Sound. His quarry was there, on one of the docks. Max was with him and Lydecker smiled in spite of himself. Two birds with one stone, always a good proposition. The hunters were moving into position from boats in Puget Sound and from helicopters now, ready to make the bag. If this was successful, he would have recaptured exactly half of the X-5 group and the tightwads in the Defense Department would give him the money to get Phase Three up and running. Then, things would start to happen. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a Japanese cruise ship coming into the Sound.  
Lydecker smiled again. Things are going great, he thought, and they're only getting better.  
  
Puget Sound, 3:33 PM  
  
As the speedboat drifted closer, Alan watched from the helm. Now, he thought, was the day of destiny. Two of the traitors were waiting on the dock, along with a scruffy-looking man in a wheelchair. Apparently they were waiting for someone else in a boat. Alan grinned evilly. They'd end up meeting someone in a boat, all right. Someone unexpected. He turned to check on two of the Hydra soldiers in the boat with him. These were veterans of the morning's hunt for Max and Johnny. They'd had their battlefield damage fixed and they were well-prepared for battle.  
  
Skies Over Puget Sound, 3:35 PM  
  
A lone Blackhawk helicopter flew through the air towards Dock #45C. This particular aircraft had two Hydra troops in it. These two hadn't participated in the hunt for Max, but they had been adequately briefed and their cybernetic capabilities were tinkered with a bit in order to increase their strength and speed. All of them knew exactly what they were dealing with. As the chopper came closer and closer to the prey, the men tensed. It was all going to go down soon.  
  
Dock #45C, 3:37 PM  
  
"Max," Johnny said, his pupils wide and eyes focused on a distant speedboat. "We've got company. Telescope your eyes and get a good look at that guy in the helm of the boat."  
Max did as Johnny told her and got quite an eyeful. Alan and two of the silvery-eyed men who Johnny had told her were augmented soldiers from an older program manned the speedboat in the Sound. Alan saw the two watching and waved in an almost flippant fashion. He knew they knew he was there.  
"Logan, we've been set up. How trustworthy is that friend of yours, again?" Johnny asked suspiciously.  
"She's very trustworthy. I think that maybe Lydecker's tapping the phone lines or something, then listening for topics of conversation related to you or Max," Logan said. "Now maybe I'll get to meet a Manticore soldier loyal to the government."  
"I doubt that you'd like the meeting," Johnny said. "You know too much. Now, do you have a gun on you? I can shoot all of them right now and save us the trouble."  
"Logan," Max said concernedly. "You need to get out of the way. I think that Alan and the Hydra soldiers are one element of an elaborate setup. Johnny, do you see any Humm-Vees or suspicious aircraft anywhere?"  
"I see several helicopters out over Puget Sound," Johnny said rather distantly. "None of them seem to be coming our way. However, I think I can get a look into the cockpits of the choppers." He telescoped his eyes and peered into the pilots' areas of the craft. Two helicopters were news crews and one seemed to be a sightseeing tour. However, when he looked in one, he got the surprise of his life. The pilot was Lydecker!  
"Lydecker's in one of the choppers," Johnny said, alarm evident in his voice. "He's keeping an eye on the whole thing." He looked into the cockpits of several other helicopters and his jaw dropped. "One of the other choppers, the one nearest to us, has some Hydra soldiers. I foresee a simultaneous air and sea attack on this pier with the objective of kidnapping Max and myself and killing Logan. Rich boy, I'd split if I were you."  
"I'm not running," Logan said defiantly. "I won't leave you two to face him alone."  
"If you don't run, you swim," Johnny said, iron suddenly appearing in his voice. "That water is a pain enough to swim in if you're healthy. You, on the other hand, don't have use of your legs."  
"Johnny," Max said, stopping him from carrying out his threat. "Neither Lydecker's people in the air or Alan's boat are doing anything. I suggest that we leave the dock."  
  
Skies Over Puget Sound, 3:38 PM  
  
"Go!" Lydecker roared into his radio. "Hit them before they leave!" Already he knew that Max and Johnny and their paraplegic companion knew that his team was closing in and he didn't want them slipping out of his hands just yet. He steered the helicopter towards the docks. If he came in behind them, he could "herd" them towards the far end of the dock and into the waiting arms of his boat people.  
"Note to self," Lydecker said. "Discipline Alan over the wave, especially if they get away. Such a breach in mission protocol warrants at least a restriction of privileges." He saw the boat moving in towards the dock and the helicopter diving towards them.  
  
Dock #45C, 3:38 PM  
  
"The die is cast," Johnny said. "The attack begins."  
"You know, Julius Caesar said something like that a long time ago," Max said. "Just before he overthrew the Roman Republic."  
"Yep," Johnny said. "Gotta love those ancient Romans and their coup d'etats. Nothing like a little crossing of the Rubicon to get the job done. You handle the chopper, I'll get the boat people." Johnny tensed as the boat approached, then leaped from the end of the dock. The slightly-mad X-5 escapee flew gracefully through the air and crashed into Alan in the boat's driver's seat.  
"Hello, hello," Johnny said without pausing, then punched Alan in the face. He then kicked one of the Hydra troops in the face. One of the silver-eyed men was the guy Johnny held in front of the machine gun earlier that morning. As his comrade fell backward, he moved forward with murder in his eyes.  
"One of those bullets pierced my internal armor," the soldier said. "That hurt, and you'll pay in blood for it."  
"Not a chance in hell, metal butt," Johnny said, reaching out and throwing the Hydra soldier into Puget Sound. The man was pulled down by all the metal in his skeleton, but Johnny didn't expect him to stay down very long. However, the enemy's absence gave him ample opportunity to beat up Alan and other soldier. Alan and the other soldier also had plans in the fight, all of which involved subduing Johnny.  
Meanwhile, the helicopter carrying the small army of Black Ops and Hydra troops had swooped down to the dock and Max and Logan found themselves besieged by soldiers, some of whom were only mostly human. The vanguard of the strike force was all Hydra troops and Max was having a devil of a time fighting off two of the silver-eyed men at the same time.  
  
Skies Over Puget Sound, 3:40 PM  
  
Lydecker watched with slight consternation as the speedboat veered away from the dock and sped out to the middle of the Sound. Johnny's rather foolhardy jump into the boat with his enemies had sent the boat spinning off course. The colonel also saw the Hydra soldier who had been thrown overboard go swimming after the boat with inhuman persistence. Apparently General Kelly's people had managed to get something right, for a change.  
Max was having a hard time with the Hydra troops. One of them was hanging from the edge of the dock, but he was rapidly climbing back up. The other Hydra soldier was fighting Max to a standstill while the man in the wheelchair looked on. Lydecker decided to bring the chopper down to a lower altitude and "buzz" Max, to try to distract her from the fight and give the other super-soldier the chance to incapacitate her.  
  
Puget Sound, 3:41 PM  
  
"Time to die, traitor boy!" Alan roared as he smashed Johnny's head into the boat's dashboard with one hand. The Manticore loyalist was also trying to get the boat back on course with his other hand, but he was having quite a problem. His struggles with Johnny were making his steering erratic and taking the two ever-closer to the enormous Japanese cruise liner that was heading glacier-like in their general direction. A collision with it would end the fight for both parties.  
"Not yet, wimp!" Johnny said, kicking Alan in the kneecap and sending the boat on another erratic course. This course, however, was heading straight for the prow of the cruise liner. Alan howled in pain and struck Johnny across the face, steering the boat away from the cruise liner and back towards the docks. They passed by the first Hydra soldier who went overboard, but he couldn't grab onto the craft before it left him in the wake. The other augmented warrior had gone over the side a few minutes earlier, leaving only Alan and Johnny to fight.  
  
Shikoku Queen, 3:41 PM  
  
"What the hell is wrong with the boat captain?" Captain Hideo Kawasaki asked his fellow officers. "The way he's going, he's going to get himself killed!"  
"Captain, what should we do?" one of the bridge officers asked. "The way he's driving, he'll end up in our path whether we change course or not!"  
"Radio the harbor authorities," the Japanese captain said. "Tell them about that boat!"  
  
Above Dock #45C, 3:42 PM  
  
Lydecker brought his chopper low over the heads of the combatants, hoping to disorient Max and make her easier prey for the Hydra soldier. The warrior who had clung tenuously to the dock minutes ago had dropped into the Sound some moments ago due to the actions of the man in the wheelchair. The scruffy fellow had run over the man's fingers with his "vehicle" and caused the man to lose his grip.  
The Colonel looked at the man who was aiding Max. "Isn't he the journalist from the conference, the one who tried to negotiate?" he asked himself. "The one who got thrown off the roof for his pains?" That man was involved now, and Lydecker made a note to find out how much that character knew about Manticore by any means necessary.  
  
Puget Sound, 3:42 PM  
  
"You idiot!" Johnny said. "We're going to crash!" He kicked Alan, who had pinned him, in the face and then kicked the wheel to change the course. The boat, which had previously been speeding towards the side of the Shikoku Queen, now turned away at a ninety-degree angle. The two Hydra soldiers were even farther away from the speedboat than they were before, leaving Alan alone to face Johnny.  
"Lydecker wants to see you," Alan said. "Very much so. He wants to pick up where he left off, you see. The torments he put you through as a child were to deter other escape attempts. However, now he's more interested in retribution for all the troubles you've caused him."  
Johnny's eyes widened and images of his past torment began echoing through his brain. Those images began to creep into how he perceived reality and Alan's appearance began to change. His hair turned blond and curly, his eyes and face changed, and he seemed to age more than twenty years. He had become...Lydecker!  
"Damn you Lydecker!" Johnny roared in a hallucinating frenzy. "I'll send you to Hell!" He steered the speedboat towards the cruise liner and seized his enemy by the throat. "Time to say hello to those big propellers!"  
  
Dock #45C, 3:44 PM  
  
"Don't you know that you can't win?" Max asked, kicking the Hydra soldier in the side. He bellowed and swung at Max, catching her on the temple. He then drew a large knife and swung it at Max's midsection. Why he didn't introduce the blade earlier in the conflict, Max did not know. However, it did give the augmented warrior an advantage in terms of killing power.  
"I'm going to cut you, useless woman!" the enemy growled in fury. "You may have had your damned broken boyfriend cast Jim into the Sound, but you won't get away from me."  
Max narrowed her eyes in rage. "Logan's not broken, ass. Just a little banged up." The warrior stabbed at Max and the X-5 escapee took it upon herself to act. She seized his wrist and hurled him into a dock-support pillar, cracking the wood. Then, she kicked him in the side of the head and relieved him of his weapon. Before the man could get his act together, she tossed the knife into the Sound. It landed on the other Hydra warrior, who was swimming towards a ladder. The blade sliced open his shoulder and spilled some blood into the Sound. The wound wasn't immediately fatal, but it brought on a new problem.  
Sharks. Puget Sound's shark population was fairly large that year, so there were a lot of mouths to feed and less than usual to feed them with. Thus, every eating opportunity was taken advantage of. Several large sharks began swimming towards the cloud of blood slowly dispersing in the cold water. The Hydra soldier with the cut shoulder now had to fight for his life against several huge seagoing killers.  
The other soldier noticed his comrade's problem and sneered at Max. "Your boyfriend's going into the drink now." The soldier reached out, seized Logan by his shirt collar, and flung him over the edge. The wheelchair, propelled by the momentum generated by Logan's capture, went tumbling into the Sound as well.  
"NO!" Max screamed and reached out. At the last possible second, she seized Logan by his ankle and swung him back to safety. In the process, she slammed her philanthropic friend into the enemy and sent him into the drink. The two enemies were now up to their eyeballs in flesh-eating fish. Max and Logan turned away from the sight of the two soldiers being mauled by the sharks.  
"Really bad timing there," Logan said.  
"For them," Max agreed.  
  
Skies Over Puget Sound, 3:45 PM  
  
"Damn it!" Lydecker growled as he saw the second Hydra soldier go toppling into the Sound. The fact that he landed in the middle of a feeding frenzy of sharks was even worse. The internal armoring of the Hydra warriors gave them a survival advantage in the situation, but he reckoned that their chances of getting out of the Sound were minimal. He turned his attention to the Shikoku Queen and the speedboat heading towards it. He saw that Alan and Johnny were still fighting in the driver's seat, but it was the renegade who was holding the suicidal course. They were heading straight for the stern and a crash there would cause them to be sucked into the huge propellers and shredded.  
He shook his head. Such waste of good people. On the plus side, another one of the rogue X-5s would be accounted for and his war with the bureaucrats for Manticore funding would have another small victory, but it was a Pyrhhic victory at best. Two of "his kids" were likely to die in the next minute. He sighed in a combination of exasperation and, quite possibly, a tiny amount of grief.  
  
Puget Sound, 3:45 PM  
  
"Ha, ha, Lydecker!" Johnny howled. "Got you now!"  
"Johnny you idiot! We're going to die!" Alan screamed. A minute later, they crashed into the side of the Japanese cruise liner. The boat disintegrated within a second of the impact and sent its occupants tumbling into the huge propellers. A moment after that, blood began bubbling to the surface amidst the flotsam. Somebody died.  
  
Jam Pony X-Press, 7:00 PM  
  
"In other news, several bodies have been recovered from Puget Sound today. Two of them apparently are victims of shark attacks, while another looks to be shredded. A third is unidentified. Witnesses aboard the Shikoku Queen report that a boat driven by two fighting men crashed into their stern today and it is likely that at least one of the bodies belongs to those two unfortunates," the female anchor said. "The officers of the ship are being interviewed by harbor authorities right now."  
"Bip, bip, bip, back to work people," Normal said to those who were watching the news. "We've got another run to make before we close up."  
"Go away, Normal," Max said, eyes wide. "It'll go off in a moment."  
"Honestly," Normal said in mock exasperation. "I wonder why I pay you people sometimes."  
"Dude," Sketchy said. "Your brother's the Night Stalker?"  
"I thought you didn't have any family," Original Cindy said. "Where'd he come from?"  
"As I said, it's a long story," Max said. "I'd prefer not to discuss it." She sniffed. "Come on. We've got work to do."  
  
Space Needle, 11:00 PM  
  
"Johnny's dead, most likely," Max said to herself as she looked out over the city. "Shredded by a boat propeller. Four of us recaptured, one of us dead; almost half of X-5 is gone now. Life is so unfair, sometimes." She looked out over Puget Sound, which partly seen from her position, and thought that she saw a piece of wood floating out in the middle. She shook her head again.  
"Poor Johnny. He gets tortured into insanity by that monster Lydecker, then dies when we think we can cure him. Life's unfair." She looked up at the full moon that cast its eerie glow over the city. "Well, I can always hope that the unidentified body is that of a drunk who fell off a pier or one of the other Hydra soldiers, and that Johnny got away somehow. If he's lucky, he's hit his head and lost his memory. That way, his nightmares can't torment him anymore.  
Her pager buzzed. Apparently Logan wanted to see her immediately. She hoped, just briefly, that Johnny had survived and gone to see Logan, but it wasn't likely. The most likely event was that Logan had a job for her to do.  
The End  
  
  



End file.
